Stem Clubs Activities
Fire Writing and Invisible Inks
19th January 2010
Several methods of secretly writing messages with ‘invisible’ inks were discussed and assessed. The pros and cons of fire writing were reviewed and their applications discussed.
Rocket Parachute Deployment
19th January 2010
Pupils engineering problem to solve was: how to make a lightweight ‘deployment’ sysem to slow their rocket down. This project arose out of the fact that the carefully manufactured rockets would only last 3 launches safely before the rocket body became unsafe.
Extracting DNA from a Strawberry
19th January 2010
Using very simple techniques, pupils extracted the DNA from a strawberry.This led to discussions about the role that DNA has and its ability to be manipulated.
School Allotment
19th January 2010
Recently our school was successful in obtaining an allotment from the local council. Plans are already underway to purchase an eco-friendly greenhouse and some tools. Projects will include growing vegetables in an organic manner and determining the benefits or otherwise of using charcoal as an additive to the soil.
Yr8 CAD/CAM: Acrylic vase
15th January 2010
Pupils will develop CAD/CAM skills gained in a previous project.
The product will be a flower vase (holding one flower) made from light gathering acrylic.
We have previously only done this with Yr10 so it should prove a challenging exercise for our Yr8 pupils.
Rockets
15th January 2010
A Yr9 project for D&T pupils that investigates the design and build of rockets.
Pupils will design and make their own rockets and test for flight accuracy, height gained, aerodynamics etc
Green Gadget
15th January 2010
Developing Year 7 and 8’s ideas on developing a green gadget that could be marketed. Four week Project but could be developed further!
Will add resources as they become available!
Disneyland Trip: The science of designing and running a theme park
13th January 2010
A trip to Disneyland Paris has been planned for Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 students to investigate the science behind running a large theme park.
This is a 3 day trip and has been funded largely by the club members. A small amount of funding was contributed from the core Science club funding to cover things like staffing.
This visit will include a series of lecturers from the Disneyland staff about, physics, ecology and pyrotechnics.
A description of the lectures are shown below.
Session One: The use of design and technology in theme parks
This session begins with a brief overview of the Walt Disney Company, which is then followed by two case studies:
Case Study 1: Roller Coaster Physics
• How roller coasters work
• Forces, mass and acceleration, speed and velocity
• Gravity and falling objects, kinetic and potential energy
• Linear motors
• Systems and control technology
• Roller coasters and the body
Case Study 2: Audio Animatronics
• The development of audio animatronics
• Reel to reel
• Animation consoles
• How today’s audio animatronics work
Session Two: Science and the Environment
Case Study 3: Plant Life and water
• Plants as characters in a story
• From beet fields to a theme park – the construction of Disneyland Paris
• Photosynthesis
• Irrigation
• Water used in special effects
• Water analysis
• Balancing lakes
Case Study 4: Environmental impacts
• Sustainable development
• Recycling
• Environmentality – how the resort has developed its own environment friendly systems
Session Three: Use of electricity, the senses and special effects at Disneyland Paris
Case Study 5: The Senses – Sight and Smell
• Persistence of vision
• Ultraviolet light
• The use of smell in theme park design
• Other senses at work in the park
Case Study 6: Special effects/Electricity
• Wind, fog, steam and vacuums
• Fire and flame effects
• Electricity in the resort
• Electric currents and circuits, series and parallel circuits
• Safety in electrical circuits
• The use of batteries and back up generators
The group leader guide is attached for additional information.
Solar Power
12th January 2010
“We looked at renewable energy resources and why there is a growing requirement to move away from traditional fossil fuels. This led us to look at solar energy.
I went through to Sheffield to meet a man who runs a project called ‘Plugging into the Sun’. He showed me some solar powered model car kits that we would be using and ran through some different things we could do with them.
Back with STEM Club, over the following weeks we built and tested the models when sunlight permitted it.
Gear ratios and the angle of the solar panels were altered to allow us to get the most out of the lower winter sun.
Finally, the students designed and constructed their own unique shells for the cars.
The following web site : http://old.solar-active.com/car.htm proved invaluable during term of the project.”
DNA extraction from fruits
09th January 2010
this wek the pupils were taken through the process of extractinf DNA from fruits.
Making an indicator
09th January 2010
this week the pupils were shown how to make an indicator to test household items to determine if they were “acids” or “alkali”.
Lego First Leauge
18th December 2009
Started building the Lego MindStorms and getting the components for the Mat ready and everyone is working well together and we will hopefully have some robots built.
Update
1st Robot Built on the 11th November and it looking great can’t wait to get racing, and see who’s programming skills are up to scratch.
**Update 18th November
Well done everyone, started learning how to program our robots and it’s going really well, we should be starting testing our robots on the track soon.
**Update 2nd December
All the MindStorms are built and and ready for there programs, hopefully the trip on Monday goes well and we do well!
**Update 7th December
The contest was a great success we did not win 1st place but as it was our first year so next year we will be even better.
We did our best and that’s what matters!
Well Done Everyone!