Stem Clubs Activities
Bouncy Custard Balls
08th December 2011
Pupils made bouncy custard balls using PVA glue and borax. A selection of food colourings and custard powder was available for kids to make their ball unique.
THE SCIENCE: Plastics and rubbers are made from polymers – long chains of molecules that can be ‘zipped’ together. The long tangled up polymer chains can be stretched out or squashed up. This makes the material elastic, which is an excellent property for a bouncy ball. We can make a bouncy ball from a simple polymer found in white PVA glue.
Overall enjoyment: 5/5
Overall understanding: 5/5
“I really enjoyed it especially getting messy and throwing it at the wall”. C.Y. Year 7 pupil.
“It was easy to understand” F.H. Year 7 pupil.
Baked ice-cream
08th December 2011
The pupils made meringue from whisking eggs, cream of tarter, vanilla extract and sugar together. They then used this to completely cover a scoop of ice cream on a cookie and cook in the oven for 5 minutes.
THE SCIENCE: The meringue insulates the ice-cream keeping out the heat from the oven, therefore the ice-cream stays frozen. We learnt about insulation and heat energy.
Overalll enjoyment: 4-5/5
Overall understanding: 5/5
“It was very fun but we had to clean up after!” L.A. Year 7
“It was a lot of fun but could be improved by Mr. Sadiq only putting a bit of ice-cream (only joking) “ F.H. Year 7
STEM in a box Brittania Glider Challenge
05th December 2011
The STEM in a box propelled glider activity was a resource supplied to the school by The Smallpeice Trust. The kit contained everything needed to design, build, market, test, improve and ultimately fly a balsa wood and tissue paper glider.
Year 9 pupils in set 9B1 embarked on the project in Science lessons, initially designing and flying paper planes. After evaluating the session, pupils then worked in teams of six to produce initial designs for the glider. After discussion and agreement in their groups the team then delegated tasks and proceeded to build the product over a number of lessons. Pupils were tasked with producing a company aim and ethos, neat designs, accurate cutting plans, calculations of wing aspect and wing loading as well as a final costing for the glider.
The winning team managed to excel in all areas and three of the original six attended the grand final of The Britannia Glider Challenge on Friday 2nd December 2011 at the Bloodhound Education Centre at The Manchester Communication Academy. The team came in third overall out of thirteen entries and produced the best presentation and display of all of the teams.
Well done to you all!
Why are Fireworks coloured?
05th December 2011
Pupils described their experience of fireworks before being shown examples of chemicals being burnt in the Bunsen flame.
Pupil groups then carried out a range of flame tests, and then identified unknown chemicals from their colours.
The group thoroughly enjoyed the event and next year on November 5th will be able to amaze friends and family at their firework event.
Overall enjoyment: 5/5
Overall understanding: 5/5
Barbie BobSkeleton Testing : November 2011
01st December 2011
Students constructed a model Bobskeleton, using a basic template design from The Royal Academy of Engineering. They then modified their design to investigate which bobskeleton could travel the furthest, using air power supplied by a pump. Subsequently, students modified their designs to accomodate a “Barbie” rider and measured the fastest time they could achieve travelling down a racetrack. STEM ambassadors Guy Speedie and David McClean from GE Aviation assisted with the project.
Balloon Rocket Challenge
25th November 2011
In this session we created a balloon rocket. Students had to tie one end of a kite string to a window handle and the other end a straw had to be fed through which was attached to a balloon using tape. The balloon had to be released from the starting point to see how far it travelled up the string.
Students were given 30 minutes to test their balloon rocket and made the necessary adjustments to improve the distance their balloon travelled. Students had a choice of different style balloons and were given 3 balloons each to do the testing. Students enjoyed the testing element of the session – as one group had popped all their balloons with 15 minutes of task. However, the group did feel sorry for them and they were given another balloon.
Once the testing was over, we set the challenge task outside and all took turns with their balloons to see how far they travelled on the string. Even the teachers entered their Balloon into the Balloon Rocket Challenge. They were a few comical moments during the challenge – one balloon was not set up properly and went the wrong direction onto the field. The winning balloon nearly reached to the other side of the string.
Everyone at the end was given sweets for their efforts. We all agreed it was a fun activity and it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone from start to finish. In the future we plan to similar activity using different items, so watch this space!
Year 6 Lego Project
24th November 2011
Year 10 students from Tudhoe Grange planned and carried out a Lego Mindstorms robotics day for year 6 students from 3 different local primary schools.
The six students from Tudhoe Grange used the knowledge they gained by taking part in the international First Lego league competition and visited each of the primaries for a morning session to teach basic programming and introduce the students to the project. Each primary then chose eight of their year 6 students to come to Tudhoe Grange to compete in the final of the competition.
The tasks completed by the teams varied from programming robots to save people from a volcanic eruption to team building with frogs and dogs! All the tasks were created and produced by the year 10 students involved and they also produced certificates and awards for the top performing teams on the day.
We hope that as well as our year 10 students gaining a BTEC in STEM Leadership from the work they have done, some of the year 6 students involved will be inspired to join the First Lego League team that we currently run in school when they join us in September, helping us better our runners up for teamwork trophy from last years competition!
National Space Centre
24th November 2011
We have teamed up with our GCSE Astronomy group to prepare a visit to the National Space Centre. We will be uploading pictures and info on our trip when we return.
we first went to a simulated mars mission were one team was the ground contol and the other was on the shuttle that was on a journey to mars. The team in the space craft had to deal with problems like illness and decompression, the ground team then had to direct them to fix these problems. We then swapped round and did this again.
After we finished the simulation we went in the main museum and had a look round.
School Climate Change School Project
24th November 2011
We are aiming to educate and raise awareness about climate change and global warming. We are currently making videos to explore cetain areas of climate change such as what causes it, whether or not it is natural, how long it has been going on for, the effects of it and how we solve it, the videos should be finished by Christmas.
Secret Codes and Ciphers
23rd November 2011
In this session students we first looked at – what is a code and what is a cipher. We then looked at why they were used in history and why the battle between code makers and code breakers. We then built an early cipher wheel and saw practiced breaking a cipher using some maths called Frequency Analysis.
Lastly, we considered the difference computers had made and used a website called The Black Chamber to both crack ciphers and create them. At the end of the session the students through the understanding of the use of a CODE KEY could create code messages to send between themselves. There is an extension to this cipher setting that I hope to introduce later in the year.
Movie Making Challenge: Copper
23rd November 2011
The task was to produce an informative movie about Copper; the scenario given to STEM Club was that the Science department video on copper had been erased. Their mission was to make a film about copper; the film had to be colourful, informative and animated.
The STEM Club members organised themselves in to small groups, each doing a different job. Students had to include sound, animating, information gathering and picture production. They opted not to speak in this film but would be prepared to narrate the next one, so watch this space!
Flame test
22nd November 2011
The boys this week were shown how to test different metal solutions using the flame test, the boys firstly checked the colour of the flame with known metals, they were then given unknown metals to check.
