Creative Science - Magnets, Springs, Pulleys, Light, Rockets
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This document outlines an educational science and technology project for children focused on forces and light. It describes several hands-on activities and experiments the children engaged in, such as building electromagnets, finding hidden magnets, constructing spring-powered "egg drop" devices, building pulley systems, making small light houses, experimenting with prisms and reflections, constructing water rockets, using telescopes, and more. It also includes feedback from the children, who enjoyed the hands-on projects, especially water rockets, but liked working in smaller groups.
![Forces and Light Enquiry School Project How can we improve our science/technology teaching to make it more child-centred, creative, imaginative and less teacher directed Brian Egles March 2011 [email_address] 07785 527324](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/forcesandlight-110513115359-phpapp02/85/Creative-Science-Magnets-Springs-Pulleys-Light-Rockets-1-320.jpg)
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Creative Science - Magnets, Springs, Pulleys, Light, Rockets
- 1. Forces and Light Enquiry School Project How can we improve our science/technology teaching to make it more child-centred, creative, imaginative and less teacher directed Brian Egles March 2011 [email_address] 07785 527324
- 3. Initial preparation Make a large lighthouse
- 6. Finding magnets Reed switch circuit Ready to assemble Assembled and tested Make a boat Fit the circuit Find “underwater” magnets And plot them on a chart
- 8. Springs Build Mr Grinling’s Springy Safety System Any design you like Each team shows and tests Not all successful
- 10. Pulleys (Knex) Build a pulley system to get Mr Grinling’s lunch across the gap between 2 tables (teams of 5)
- 12. Lighthouse making Give teams of 2-3 the parts to make a “Pringles tube” lighthouse with a switch. Let them choose coloured acetate to make theirs different in the dark Can you identify yours?
- 14. Prisms and reflections Line a tube with black paper and cut slits in some card. Make a lightbox by shining a torch through the slits. Draw the light rays as they reflect off mirrors and refract through various prisms/lenses
- 16. Water rockets 2 x 2l carbonated drink bottles Cereal card for fins A4 thin card and clay for nose
- 18. Telescopes Use kits to test objective lens onto a paper screen held over end. Then add eyepiece for real thing. Look at near + far for focus and read upside down
Editor's Notes
- School has all the parts still assembled – up to you to dismantle or reuse as you see fit. Base is 12mm MDF from Homebase. Supporting post is 100mm fencepost from challenge fencing. Screws and washers for base/post were from local hardware shop. Big tube is thick carpet tube scrounged from Milners in Ashtead. Light is B&Q LED battery light with 3xAAA batteries. Balcony was cut from plywood by a friend of mine – I’d quite like it back and I think you would be better letting the children make a balcony from thick card. Everything else is general scrap paper/tape/card just slapped on to a decent thickness by the children. Light is put into 2l coke bottle (put several down the hole until get the right height Used about half a tub of papier mache glue to make the 2 lighthouses – each took half a day to make and an hour or so to paint the next day when dry. Safety Mat can get slippery with glue Take care if you cut the coke bottle, especially sharp edges
- Used school own magnets plus bought some additional strong ferrite magnets. Picked up Meccano and weighed it to find strongest – majority of meccano belongs to Mr Egles so borrow from him or buy a load of cheap steel nails or similar. Paper clips are too light – best to have heavier things to lift. Lifts up to just over 1kg so need quite a few weights: 1 x 1kg plus 2 or 3 x 500g Plenty of 100g, 20g and 10g Definitely need a set of scales per table. Electromagnets: Nails (steel) for the cores are in the bag Long lengths of wire (4 metres) are already fitted with crocodile clips and in the bag, wind around nails to make magnets (will only lift about 20-70g) 2 x AA batteries in PP3 clip are good, bared wires for attaching crocodile clips Cut the bare wires on the PP3 clip to different lengths to minimise the likelihood of short circuiting Safety If ferrite magnets break, edges can be sharp Don’t drop 1kg weights from height Don’t let the batteries short circuit or they can get hot
- Reed switch circuits are in the bag (apart from those still assembled). Used 10 per class so they worked in 3s. Connections (forks, male, female) came from Rapid – there are spares in the plastic tub but most of the small ones have been used so might need some more Tiny tubes (ferrules) are in a film canister and are used to crimp on to end of reed switches to connect to wires (using pliers) – needs doing by adult before the lesson – quite fiddly so allow time to prep. PP3 clip for batteries also has connectors pre-crimped on and at different lengths to minimise chance of short circuit. Reed switches came from one of the school catalogues – plenty of spares in the bag – they seem very reliable and we only broke 1. School has plenty of bulb holders but likely to need more bulbs – the old ones were very unreliable so I suspect they were not 3.5v bulbs like it said on the bag – we bought more 2.5v bulbs and they were fine – likely to need more. Have given you some old Jenga blocks in the bag to hide with the real magnets. Played “hide the magnet” under the blue cloth – hid some school red&blue bar magnets with some Jenga so they couldn’t feel the difference. Safety - Just avoid short circuits making batteries hot
- School has bags of small springs but large ones belong to Mr Egles so borrow from him – could still do with even more! Encourage the children to make additional “springs” by cutting rings of drinks bottles and lengths of card etc. Egg drop from on/near balcony – use plumb line to be accurate – good group feedback likely Safety Care cutting up bottles Clean up raw egg Springs are not especially sharp but do have pointed ends sometimes so take care
- Rent K’nex from Satro for £50 for a couple of days. String for “rope” Jenga blocks for sandwich lunch (or could make real packed lunch in foil)
- Lighthouses are still assembled so will need to dismantle to reuse – some spare bulbs, holders, wire, clips etc are in box. Coloured acetate A4 sheets were cut up for the light filters – came from school catalogue. Big card tubes for hiding them in the dark are cut up thin carpet tube scrounged from Milners in Ashtead. Screwdriver set is in Ali’s class. Need pringles tube between 2 or 3 – pre drilled with 2 holes in side for brass split pins (about a paperclip length apart) and 2 holes on the metal end for the lightbulb. Safety Avoid short circuits Drill not “stab” the holes in the metal end or the inside will be sharp
- Same carpet tubes lined with school black paper and torches for lightbox – cut slits in cereal card for the end. Prisms and lenses (flat sided) plus rectangular prisms are in science cupboard – ideally need a couple more sets – came from school catalogue. Safety - Some prisms have hard corners so be careful not to stab in the eye if you look through it
- Satro run water rockets and can rent ordinary launchers from them for £50. Much better to ask for Stan Stephens and his launcher (NPL champion in 2006 and 2010). Need 2 2litre carbonated drinks bottles per rocket. Cereal card, A4 card, 40-50g clay/plasticene and sellotape. Goof to have some balloons and hand/stomp rockets for the talk. Good to have stopwatches and a wheel for measuring distance. Bottle about 25% full of water then pumped to 60-80 psi with air to launch. Takes virtually a full day. Safety: Stand behind Wear safety glasses if near (e.g. doing the pumping) Plenty of distance for launch (can go 200m) NEVER use very old bottles, especially if been out in the sun as they can go brittle NEVER use still drinks bottles, they are not rated for pressure. Sparkling bottles are rated to around 200 psi so have a big safety margin. Could consider earplugs too but not really necessary
- Telescope kits belong to Mr Egles so borrow from him. Start with just large objective lens, tubes, transparent “screen” paper over end to find focus (near light on lighthouse, distant trees outside). Add small eyepiece lens and use to focus on near and far objects, notice image is upside down, try to read a book from across the classroom. Safety: NEVER look at sun