May 5th: Volcanoes!

04. Lavaflow_sampling_2Joe and Sarah have been in today investigating volcanoes with Year 4.

You’ll have dribbled honey down slopes and – let’s admit it – left some of that honey on our samples of volcanic rocks with your sticky fingers. So tomorrow, Sarah will be washing rocks in the Think Lab sink. Not to worry.

For a reminder of what you studied, and some activities to continue your exploring at home, see our Volcano Workshop page.

 

Physics things to make you go ‘Hmmm’

This morning 22 year 9 students from Kenton visited Think Lab.  They tried out a range of simple activities, all of which encouraged them to ‘Do Physics!’  Some of the explanations used physics ideas that they had met before, but some required them to think about topics which they won’t meet until A-level physics (or beyond).  All were chosen to make the students go ‘Hmmm’ and think hard about what they had observed.

One of the activities was dropping different balls to see which reached the ground first.  They had two tennis balls, one of which was filled with water.  Lots of the students predicted that the heavier ball would fall faster.

It didn’t.  Although it was hard to spot visually, when we listed for the balls hitting the ground, they bounced at the same time.  This was quite surprising!  Part of the reason for this is that ‘common sense’ tells us that heavier things fall faster.  And if air resistance becomes a significant factor, then we do find that heavy things fall faster.  The tennis balls take air resistance out of the experiment, and then the balls fall at the same rate.

A slightly larger demonstration of this phenomenon was done by Professor Brian Cox using a giant vacuum chamber.

Another very popular activity was looking at water beads, or hydrogel beads.  These are a water absorbing polymer.  When they are dropped into water, they disappear.

You can buy water beads online, or from florists shops.

 

Year 7 – What do Engineers do?

We had a great morning at Marden High School with a group of year 7 pupils on Friday 27th March. The session was focused on engineering, and in particular, civil engineering.

The session began with pupils exploring what engineers do and the types of skills they need to have.  Some pupils thought they just fixed things, whilst other pupils thought that to be an engineer you had to be ‘strong’. This led to a very interesting discussion around they types of jobs people do and the assumptions we make.

Next pupils began to explore practically the types of skills engineers need by building a table able to hold a bottle of water.  They were given only 20 pieces of newspaper and masking tape, and had just 20 minutes to complete the task.  The results were varied and some fantastic tables produced.  There were discussions around improvements and prototyping and we then repeated the exercise but mixed the groups around and limited the masking tape.

The second batch of tables was more creative but groups were thwarted in their plans by the rationed masking tape and their team working skills … cue further discussion!

After a quick break we explored the many types of engineering, with a focus on civil engineers.  There are many specialist areas of civil engineering, which include: transport, urban projects, earthquakes, renewable energy, housing, water defences, the design and build of bridges, tunnels and much more.  In fact, so much of what we see in the built environment on a daily basis will have come into contact with a civil engineer.

We also looked at the types of qualifications needed to become a civil engineer in the future. Key school subjects include maths, physics, design technology and engineering.

We had a brilliant morning and I was very impressed by the group’s attitude and mature approach to the session.  Very well done to all.

Want to know more?

Here’s a handout which tells you more about what civil engineers do, as well as a video from the Institute of Civil Engineers.

What do Civil Engineers do?

Meteorites workshop – 26th March

Iron meteorite from Chaco, Argentina. One of the 'Campo del Cielo’ fragments first found in 1576.

Iron meteorite from Chaco, Argentina. One of the ‘Campo del Cielo’ fragments first found in 1576.

Joe’s been in today with a big old bag of rocks. No, I’m sorry, I misread his diary: he’s been in with a big bag of old rocks.

Want to know more about meteorites? We’ve a page of information about the rocks you saw today over here. Tell your parents which meteorites you saw and handled, and find out what makes them important, unusual, or interesting.

24 March: Bubbles

Bubbles 9Bubbles.

Small bubbles. Large bubbles. Long bubbles. Round bubbles. Red bubbles? Green bubbles? How many different sorts of bubbles did we see today? How were they different, how were they alike?

Joe blew lots of bubbles with you today. If you’d like to carry on blowing bubbles at home we’ve loads of ideas and inspiration about different things you can do with them at our bubbles page. Click here, or click the picture to the left.

Everyone got a pot of bubbles to take home to constitute science at home! Do Tweet us any photos of your experiments – @thinkphysicsne

Also – see you if you can spot yourself in Joe’s gallery of the day:

 

23 March: a busy day at Carville

Iron meteorite from Chaco, Argentina. One of the 'Campo del Cielo’ fragments first found in 1576.

Iron meteorite from Chaco, Argentina. One of the ‘Campo del Cielo’ fragments first found in 1576.

What an incredible day the Think Physics team has had at Carville Primary!

I spent the morning exploring meteorites with Year 1 and Year 4/5. We held meteorites that were about 4.57 billion years old! Find out more about what we did here.

In the afternoon, Year 5/6 explored their universe. A journey that took them from the very (very) big to the unimaginably small and from the Sun to the Moon and back again. We used an infrared camera to see through solid objects and tested out a particle accelerator which was a hair-raising experience for some!

STEM Quest club: we have lift-off!

On Thursday afternoon a group of slightly nervous year 9 students made their way from the CLV to Cragside CofE Primary school nearby.  These were the STEM Quest club leaders.  Their mission was to run a STEM Quest club for year 4 and 5 pupils in the primary school.

We’d spent some time with the year 9’s before half-term trying out different activities based around science, technology, engineering and maths – the STEM of the title.  The year 9’s then thought about how each activity might work with primary school children, what they might need to change, and how they could best explain the activity to the younger children.  For four of the activities, two students have taken responsibility for leading the session – including thinking about what instructions they need to give and what safety issues them might need to think about.

For the first session Kira and Charlotte were in charge.  The aim of the session was to create a 30cm high table which would hold a water bottle.  However, there was only newspaper and roll of sellotape to work with.  The girls explained the activity to the very excited year 4s, and then the planning and building began.

It was great!  The secondary students made the primary pupils feel at ease.  They were supportive of the plans that the primary pupils came up with, without trying to impose their own ideas.  It was a hive of activity, and the adults in the room could stand back and watch the progress of the work with pride.

People who work in science and engineering don’t often need to use newspaper to build tables.  However, although the activity isn’t really representative of what scientists and engineers do, the skills that the children used are. They were creative, they planned their structure, they tested, they reassessed their design, worked in a team and had fun.

Feb 24th: Volcano!

01. Mt Etna_2006_lava fountainJoe and Sarah have been in today investigating volcanoes with Year 3.

You’ll have dribbled honey down slopes and – let’s admit it – left some of that honey on our samples of volcanic rocks with your sticky fingers. So tomorrow, Sarah will be washing rocks in the Think Lab sink. Not to worry.

For a reminder of what you studied, and some activities to continue your exploring at home, see our Volcano Workshop page.

23rd February: Oakfield Science Week

This week I’m spending some exciting days supporting Oakfield Infant and Junior School’s science week. Across the school, the children have been exploring the universe from the comfort of their classrooms, the playground and the Centre for Life’s planetarium!

On Monday and Wednesday, Y2 and Y4 are handling objects from the far reaches of the solar system in our meteorites workshop. We’ll add a link to some meteorite notes when we’ve finished writing them (!), and in the meantime here are some photos from Monday’s workshop: