Stem Clubs Activities
Decomposition of hydrogen peroxide
18th August 2010
Earthing up potatoes and second attempt at collecting oxygen
Working in pairs, using a conical flask and a delivery tube pupils mixed hydrogen peroxide and manganese dioxide and hydrogen peroxide. They collected the gas and tested oxygen gas.
Climate Change
17th August 2010
Fabia Pennington, STEM ambassador, with a background in Mechanical Engineering and Sustainability working for AECOM ran the session. Scenario set up with students being scientists that were going to advise the government. They compared water level rises caused floating and submerged ice. Fabia led discussion on climate change and flooding.
collecting and testing oxygen
17th August 2010
Chemical Reactions (decomposition of hydrogen peroxide) – making and testing oxygen!
Methane Bubbles, Burning Money and Fire Writing
17th August 2010
Methane bubbles, burning money and fire writing
Teacher demonstration of methane bubbles and burning money soaked in ethanol and water. Pupils carried out fire writing using an oxidation reaction.
http://resources.schoolscience.co.uk/Salters/pdfs/volone/SCC1_Prac13.pdf
Survival on an Island
17th August 2010
Survival on a desert island
Pupils were giving a selection of resources ‘salvaged’ from a shipwreck. They had to use the resources to provide shelter, food, entertainment and to attract help.
Idea from the Science museum.
Silicon Demo and separating sand and copper sulphate
17th August 2010
Silicon Demo
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators/classroom_and_homework_resources/resources/scorching_silicon.aspx
Separating sand and copper sulphate – pupils had to work out how to achieve this, racing against each other. The winning group was the first to get the copper sulphate.
Buoyancy – Race between clay boats and paper boats
17th August 2010
Buoyancy – Race between clay boats and paper boats
Pupils test the buoyancy of various different shapes of clay to find out which stays afloat best. Pupils design paper boats and race them using fans.
UV slime, bouncy custard balls and shape shifting slime
17th August 2010
UV slime and bouncy custard balls
Teacher demonstration of slime creation using borax solution. UV colouring shown under black light. Pupils made own bouncy balls using custard.
Making fire extinguishers
17th August 2010
Chip pan fire and fire extinguishers
Teacher demonstration showing the effect of extinguishing a chip pan fire with water.
Pupils made a foam fire extinguisher.
http://resources.schoolscience.co.uk/Salters/pdfs/volone/SCC1_Prac5.pdf
Growing potatoes
17th August 2010
Growing potatoes
Discussed growing potatoes. City students are unsurprising ignorant about growing food. Pupils worked in pairs and drew pictures explaining how they could get more potatoes from one potato.
They shared their ideas.
We looked at slideshow on
http://www.potatoesforschools.org.uk/pc70/Teacher-resources/Growing-potatoes
Potatoes (early, early variety) were grown in Green reusable bags from garden centre.
Pupils watered plants and potaoes were harvested in the last science club session of the year,
Growing plants on Mars
17th August 2010
Mars Mission Activities – Growing plants on Mars
Students will conduct experiments to find out the best way for setting up and managing a greenhouse that uses hydroponic growing methods. This greenhouse would provide the environment in which the students could grow their own food on Mars. Brassica seeds grown on water retaining gel.
Planetary Landers
17th August 2010
Planetary scientist Sheila Kanani from University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory .
Sheila is a STEM ambassador and is passionate about encouraging students to enter STEM careers. Her PhD involves using Cassini data to look at Saturn’s magnetosphere, to see how it interacts with the ring system and Saturn’s many moons.
Sheila Kanani will give a small presentation to set the scene before pupils launch into the practical work. Working in groups, pupils will design and make a planetary lander containing a water balloon. This will then be tested by throwing it/dropping it from a height and seeing if the water balloon survives. This mimics the process that NASA would go through when designing and building a spacecraft that has to land successfully on another planet e.g. the Mars’ Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.