STEM News

Hydraulic Arms

Year 10 students have been working on hydraulic arms. Simon and Dickson explained that “Hydraulics and pneumatics are methods of providing fluid power to machinery”. In the project, students were provided with veterinary syringes (without needles), rubber hose, wood and basic hardware. 

Some of the designs worked particularly well at picking up and moving a variety of small parts. Simon explained that “examples of hydraulics applications include the hydraulic lift (for cars) and the dump truck lift. The reason hydraulics are used in heavier operations is that the liquids used are hard to compress, therefore delay in the movement is not noticeable.”

Year 11 Product Design Technology

Year 11s were able to make some impressive projects even though they had limited time to build this semester in Product Design Technology (due to Covid-19 Lockdowns). 

Bobby was happy with his katana rack. His original plan was for a “fancy, Japanese style, katana rack. It also has to suit my gaming set up it must look expensive”.

Everyone agreed the finished product fit the bill as Bobby stuck to his approach and ensured “all edges of the katana rack must be smooth so it looks good and it's safe to put the katana on”.

Tom Martin

Product Design & Technology Teacher