Hydraulic fun in Team 6

On Thursday 30th July, Team 6 met in the hall for the 2040 Project to learn some new skills to take away for our projects.

We learnt how to make cardboard hydraulics, and in groups of three or four, we tried to create a hydraulic lift.

The first step was to collect our materials: popsicle sticks, cardboard, syringes, a piece of plastic hose and kebab sticks. Then we watched a video (multiple times) on how to assemble it after Mr Cook Bonney explained how it would work. Two groups managed to finish in the first session… which was quite impressive!

Assembling the lift was not easy. It was a very delicate and niggly job because of the tricky design. I thought drilling the popsicle sticks was one of the hardest parts and the kebab sticks as they could split easily if you pushed too hard (as we experimented). One by one we joined the popsicle sticks and kebabs together to create diamond shapes, so they could move up and down when the bottom stick was moved. Water is put into the syringes and the piece of hose so when you press one end of the syringe, the water travels through the hose and makes the plunger in the other end push the kebab stick forward to make the lift go up! YAY!

We talked about how these types of lifts could be used in real life situations. Mr Cook Bonney showed us an example of it being used in a house as a carport and in car parks to make better use of space in the future.

By Ella Rowe

Room 11