The View

Science Club

DIY Electromagnets

Starting slow, finishing fast

Once the Science Club kids had organised the tech for the parent helpers (it may have had something to do with the ‘on’ button?) we watched a short video about the biggest machine in the world. Not your dad’s truck.  The Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.

 

Science Club kids then accelerated through the making of our own electromagnet by coiling some wire around a bolt and connecting it to a battery.  It was strong enough to pick-up paper clips, but . . . we wanted to go faster.   So we accelerated again and made an even stronger electromagnet which set lots of different wire shapes and designs spinning. Faster and faster. With an increasing rate of acceleration and some nails we also made mini fans.

 

Finally, at maximum speed the kids spilled out to enjoy the sunshine for the last 10 minutes of lunch.  You probably didn’t see them - only a blur as they passed by in the playground.

 

Julie, Jasna, Emma, Sally, Mel, Kyla, Alissia and Heather (parent volunteers)

 

CHANGE OF DATE:  our potions class will be on 11 September; our Professor was muttering something about Quidditch schedules and missing gillyweed supplies.

 

Science Club report: Sensing Sensations

Gallery of Torture

Shh!  Don’t tell any of the younger kids about what we did in Science Club.  We don’t want to scare them away from Science Club when they grow up. Maybe don’t tell the teachers or parents, either, or they might stop Science Club altogether. 

 

In our Sensing Sensations session these are some of the things we did to the students:

  • Blindfolded them
  • Put brown paper bags over their noses
  • Placed their hands in icy water
  • Put disgusting flavours on their tongue
  • Made them stand on one leg
  • Got them to run across the room, trying to hear ‘Laurel’ when they could clearly only hear ‘Yanny’
  • Made them experience illusions
  • Gave them a model of the eye to put together (this experience is trickier than constructing IKEA furniture)
  • Banged them with a hammer

And the worst thing?  We had them use an analogue watch to time 30 seconds.  Some of these unfortunate children may never recover from these cool and unusual ways of exploring our 5 senses. 

 

Julie, Mel, Emma, Jasna, Alissia, Sally, Kyla and Heather (parent volunteers and part-time torturers)