Science Workshop Projects - The Repair Yard
Vinegar and Baking Soda Rockets.
We cut our teeth on the little Alka-Seltzer rockets and moved on to using vinegar and baking soda. In the reaction between these two substances CO2 is produced. If the bottle is capped with the appropriate tightness, the result can be a high flying rocket. Our highest rocket flew around 15 meters. After testing, most students decided that a 1:1 proportion worked well with 30ml of each being fairly common. If you see students putting paper towel rolls into the rocket this is because they wrapped the baking soda in paper towel to slow down the reaction until they could get the bottle corked. Look at our designs and then watch the short videos.
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Alka-Seltzer Rockets!
Alka-Seltzer is good for more than settling your stomach! These canisters build up pressure and pop into the air for a fun competition. Some students used their chemistry knowledge to become more effective. They ground up the tablets so that the reaction could happen quicker and more completely. ...sometimes it was just too quick! A "fail" is on the left, but a "high flyer" is on the right. Check them both out.
Rock Climbing in Wright's Field!
One important lesson that everyone can learn is to sometimes enjoy nature for what it is. So every once in a while we go our and scramble around on the boulders.
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Rocket Cars!
For this project the students had to build a rocket car for drag races. We used standard model rocket engines (B6 for test and C6 for the races). Looks at these rocket car tests! Some were great, but others...not so much.
Solar Car Racers
We compete in the Junior Solar Sprint Competition here in San Diego. Other than the motor and solar panel the rest of the cars design is up to the student. We have yet to win the speed event, but the students have won the innovative design, best craftsmanship, and engineering awards.
This year (2014) one of teams won the Best Wheel and Guidance System, and our fastest group came in 8th out of 70 cars!
For more information on this fun event, check out their website at: http://www.juniorsolarsprint.com/
This year (2014) one of teams won the Best Wheel and Guidance System, and our fastest group came in 8th out of 70 cars!
For more information on this fun event, check out their website at: http://www.juniorsolarsprint.com/
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Insect Safari
Wright's Field is a constant source of excitement in the spring with all of the awesome different types of insects roaming around. Students have to be able to find and identify at least 9 orders of insects and then photo graph some of those orders. Look to the right for some of their spectacular photography of insects, arachnids, and flowers from our field.
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Potato Cannon
In our study of force, we constructed low powered potato cannons to fire potatoes across our fields. Most construction just consisted of PVC pipe and glue. Woo Hoo!
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You can see in this video that you should use glue to attach your cannon! We used a model rocket ignition system to fire the cannon. Fuel to air mixture is really important.
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Egg Drop - Plop
The first of the egg drop challenges was to be able to create a capsule of some sort that would allow an uncooked egg to survive being thrown by me straight up in the air while using the lightest mass of materials possible. Our champion's capsule only weighed in at 21 grams. The second challenge was to create a capsule that would allow an uncooked egg to survive after being shot from a water balloon catapult at 45 degree angle. One other stipulation was that the capsule would have to travel 20 meters at a minimum. Our last challenge was to shoot an egg straight up and have the longest hang time. The hang time record for 2012 was 7.3 seconds.
In 2014 we decided to change the challenge to a series of four progressively more aggressive events. 1) 2m drop, 2) a 5 meter drop, 3) a 25+ meter sling shot shot (distance/mass), and 4) a full force throw at the wall!
In 2014 we decided to change the challenge to a series of four progressively more aggressive events. 1) 2m drop, 2) a 5 meter drop, 3) a 25+ meter sling shot shot (distance/mass), and 4) a full force throw at the wall!
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HoverCraft-iness
In my science Workshop class we've been working on personal hovercrafts. We're pretty sure it's the best use for a leaf blower!
These hovercrafts will hold a full grown adult and sometime two! But be careful, these near-frictionless devices can shoot out from under you! Our designs are based on, or copied from, William Beaty's design plans which can be found here. Enjoy!
In the end, we had races, completed an obstacle course, and even created our own game of hover-curling!
These hovercrafts will hold a full grown adult and sometime two! But be careful, these near-frictionless devices can shoot out from under you! Our designs are based on, or copied from, William Beaty's design plans which can be found here. Enjoy!
In the end, we had races, completed an obstacle course, and even created our own game of hover-curling!
Photos of the personal hovercraft...
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Home Made Hovercraft Ride...
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