Activities tagged Physics
Building a lighthouse
30th October 2009
BUILDING A LIGHTHOUSE
Working as a group you have 1 hour to design and make a lighthouse using the
materials provided. When the time is up, the lighthouse will be tested and assessed for the following:
• Design
• Cost
• Strength
Materials
1 roll of sellotape
assorted elastic bands
strip of aluminium foil
12 sheets of A4 paper
1 piece of wire, approximately 1m long
1 bulb
1 battery
2 drawing pins
1 clothes peg
Tools
1 ruler,
1 pencil,
1 screwdriver
You should spend about 45 minutes building your lighthouse.
It must:
• Be free standing
• Be a minimum of 90cm high
• Have a working light at the top
• Have an on/off switch
• Be made so that the battery is no more than 4cm from the base of the lighthouse
In search of King John's Jewels 2
03rd May 2011
Our second NSEW 2010 funded by Ignite and using the local legend of the loss of King John’s baggage train containing the royal treasures.
The Gleed Boys’ pupils produced theatrical performances and organised tasks for primary pupils to carry out to obtain clues to find the hidden treasure.
Water Rockets
28th May 2010
Summer term, and it’s time for some outdoor STEM club!
We made water rockets, experimenting with varying the size of the bottle, the volume of water and trying out different nose cones.
The 1l drinks bottles with a funnel shaped neck worked best.
Model Hovercraft
21st May 2010
Using kits from Interplay. The club built and raced small model hovercrafts.
The models are easily assembled and powered by 2 AA batteries. THe pupils had great fun making them and we were all really impressed by how well they travelled down the corridor.
Both light weight and speedy they go at some speed!!
Sadly they cannot be dissassembled for re-use but still great fun.
Looking into other interplay products as the hovercraft proved so susccesful.
Rockets
24th June 2011
A series of sessions in which students investigate various aspects of rockets.
Session 1 – Water bottle rockets.
An introduction to the basic physics of action-reaction and the forces involved in launching a rocket was followed by students investigating the effect of changing the volume of water on the height achieved by a water rocket. Students discussed the variables that should be controlled (pressure, height at launch, size of bottle to name a few) and how to measure the independent & dependent variables. They decided to measure water volume using a measuring cylinder and height reached by hanging a tape measure from the top floor window of the Science block. After several attempts it was clear that measuring height reached was going to be difficult: Firstly, the height of the rocket was difficult to measure accurately due to the fact that it went too high to see clearly. Not only that but two of the rockets actually cleared the building and landed on the roof. Cheers were heard as a member of the site staff was seen running across the roof to rescue them before students decided to measure the time the rocket spent in the air instead of height reached – this allowed them to launch further away from the building to prevent any further mishaps.
Students were eventually able to work out that there is an optimum volume of water that provides the greatest flight time – a balance between a high volume to give a longer time for the upthrust to provide lift and a low volume to reduce the weight of the bottle rocket. The optimum volume being around 200ml of water in a 2 litre bottle – leading to a height reached that must have been in excess of 20 metres.
Session 2 – Best angle for launch.
Students used both water rockets and stomp rockets to investigate the optimum launch angle to produce the furthest distance of travel. Most found the optimum to be 45 degrees. Be careful! to use stomp rockets only in VERY open spaces though – we lost another two to the roof. I suspect, however, that one actually cleared the building completely and left the school grounds. It has not been seen since.
Flying club
05th October 2010
Making gliders with Balsa wood. Students investigated aerodynamics. Investigated and motion of the glider as the space changes
A Trip to Space
01st November 2009
Our first project was Space. We did many things including making several types of rocket, testing parachutes landing on the Moon, measuring out the solar system and some space food tasting!
Stop Motion animation
07th December 2009
Using cheap web-cams and free software (Helium Frog) we are doing stop-motion animation, creating movies with the theme of “Making the impossible possible”. We have discussed what makes something impossible – has it just not been done before, or does it violate laws of physics for example?
Glider Competition
21st September 2010
STudents will be involved in a competition to build the best glider. They must research glider design and draw scale diagrams of their glider before they can build it.
Wind Capture Challenge
07th January 2011
This year students in Year 9 are working on designing a prototype model of a wind turbine using only recycled materials. The first principles of their design came from a simple paper wind mill. Students then carried out research from the internet and finally selected their design. Students began their prototype models in October and are finalising their work in the design workshops in preparation for a panel of STEM ambassadors to judge their work against establshed criteria.