Stem Clubs Activities
Fast and Furious?
23rd September 2009
Y8 pupils are to design and/or make from kits a range of minature vehicles powered by traditional cells, solar power, hydrogen cells and other sources of energy. The cars will be raced and then further developments in design such as aerodynamics will be investigated
Herb Garden & Weather Station
23rd September 2009
In order to investigate the importance of plants and grow some herbs for our future club activities like kitchen cookery we have decided to grow a herb garden in the front of our school.
This will lead to trips such as botanic gardens and Alnwick garden.
This is an on going project and will involve recording soil hydration, soil pH, measuring plant growth, effects of fertilising / vermiculite etc.
The effect of different weather conditions will be monitored and this will be related to plant growth.
This project will link with kitchen chemistry and weather station readings.
A bigger project to form an eco classroom outside the school for summer ecology lessons is being planned. (More information to be added soon).
Lighthouse 2
23rd September 2009
As our starter Challenge Activity pupils are building a lighthouse from a limited kit of resources. To enrich the activity in our second year our Mentors are sharing their knowledge from last year in exchange for tokens. We are also extending the activity to include wind proofing and stability.
Year 8 Science & Engineering Club
16th September 2009
This is our weekly club for Year 8’s. One week is in a Science Lab. and the next week is in D&T room or workshop. We follow a wide range of activities including forensics, nature walks, pneumatics, Lego Technic, etc.
In July we had a vist to our Town Bridge. The guide gave us a short history of the bridge and then it was opened specially for us. We all went underneath the mechanism so we were able to see the motors, security wedges and see how the fail safe mechanism and control system worked.
At the end of the summer term we visited the Science & Natural History Museums in London. We unfortunately booked the coach for the same day as the (then un planned) tube strike! It took ages for the coach to get into central London .. but we all had a great day.
Building a model solar system
16th September 2009
Doing Maths with scaling -looks like Neptune will be in the local sports centre! We worked with the art department to create a model but ran into problems with the scale, although it did give the students an idea of how far the planets were apart relative to each other.
Lego Robots
15th September 2009
Building Lego Robots
Students spent a number of weeks building robots out of Lego. Using computer software students wrote programs that explored the capabilities of their robots, such as solving a rubix cube puzzle and manoeuvring around an obstacle course.
kite buggies
10th September 2009
Year 8 students will be building and racing kite powered buggies during this term. News and photos to follow.
Rocket Construction
09th September 2009
Our STEM club members designed and built their own model rockets from kits, and then launched them using solid rockets motors. The kits are made by Estes and Quest.
The pupils are now going to design and construct larger rockets that they can enter into a national rocketry competition.
Physics Enterprise Day - Mars Lander Project
09th September 2009
As part of our Enterprise Week (we are a Business & Enterprise College), 120 Year 7 & Year 8 pupils , including our STEM Club, took part in a Mars Lander Project day.
Pupils had to work in teams to design, construct and test Mars Landers, similar to Beagle 2, that would carry a Robot Rover (an egg!) and land it safely on the planet’s surface.
Students constructed the landers using cardboard, straws, sellotape, bubble wrap, cotton wool, polystyrene chips and string. All the materials had to be paid for out of a budget.
We dropped the landers from a height of 4m and the winning lander allowed the egg to fall without breaking, and then roll out onto the ground ready to start roving around.
Aspire More Able - Target: Mars
09th September 2009
This one day activity was organised by an external agency called Aspire: More Able (aspire-ma.com). They organise day or week events for gifted & talented students. The theme of today’s event was Target: Mars, where pupils were put in the role of scientists on a mission to Mars looking for life. They had to do chemical experiments to look for signs of life (oxygen), and also construct a robot rover that could traverse the rocky Mars landscape. Pupils learnt team building and collaboration skills.
Engineering Bridges
09th September 2009
Building bridges using custom made kits.
Paper / Straw bridges.
-Investigate bridge design (lunchtime)
-Build Paper Bridges (individual) Competition.
—> Use weights and load balancing.
Winner wins a prize.
Follow up exercises include:
-Use Custom Made Kits in groups to build most interesting and functional bridge.
- Guest speaker from university engineering.
Battle of the Exothermic and Endothermic Reactions
09th September 2009
In order to introduce the theme of temperature thermo colour changing film was used to show how temperature can cause colour change.
After this starter activity we showed students a braniac video at lunchtime before the club where thermite and liquid nitrogen were poured onto each other. We got them to predict what would happen and which reaction was more powerful hot or cold.
We didnt show them the result until the end of the club activity in the evening and we recorded our predictions.
In the evening session we had a number of reactions setup with temperature probes attached so that students can mix the chemicals and feel the endo / exo thermic reactions taking place.
Groups compared industry produced heat packs and chemical ice packs as well as our home made chemical reactions to discover which one resulted in the biggest temperature change.
This we called Cool vs Hot.
We collected results and announced the winners. The club was devided into teams testing hot and cold.
