Hair raising Hands on Science

Forces, electricity and hands on science

Over the past two weeks all the Year 7 classes have been to the Physics Department at the University of Otago.

The hair raising Van der Graaf machine taught the children about static electricity and it is discharged.  The students experimented with making and generating their own electricity charges through charging pieces of metal with fabrics and using  copper coils with magnets.

Did you know a feather and a ball will fall to the ground at the same speed when in a vacuum?  The vacuum removed all the air resistance which usually makes the feather fall slower to the ground.

In one of the labs it took the entire class to lift a 5kg weight.  This was because of the lever and the distance from the class to the weight.

Do you like the band crash test dummies?  There were no dummies in Year 7 as they looked at forces and impact of cars.  When the two crash carts had the same pushing force the two carts stopped in the middle.  Lots of giggles but no knew lyrics from these guys.

Check out what an old wheel and a swivel chair can do. How fast can you spin yourself around? What happens when you hold the wheel away from yourself.

There are some serious calculations going on with the creating a balloon racer.  Getting the axles to turn and the balloon to have the right amount of air to go the distance.

An excellent trip to the University of Otago's Physics department full of force and electricity.