Schools maybe closed but as the lockdowns continues so does our work. We invested the third lockdown developing more workshops and content for children. In this blog we discuss our three new workshops, Electricity, Forces and Motion and Light Waves. All of the new workshops are suitable for both primary and secondary school children.
I first looked at improving the current workshops we have based on feedback and the events we have delivered so far. I realised our previous "science fun" workshop can be split into two separate workshops to give more clarity. All our workshops are science-based, so it didn't make sense to have a science fun workshop. It was better to split the content of this workshop into subject topics taught currently at schools like our other workshops. Therefore, I split this workshop into "Electricity" and "Forces and Motion".
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Knex Bridge Model |
Breadboard LED Circuit |
The electricity workshop covers many practicals using motors, series, and parallel circuits. It also includes a bonus activity in which students will build a touch switch circuit to turn on an LED. This circuit works by sending a very small (harmless) current from a 9V battery through their body skin to turn on a transistor switch that will turn on an LED.
The forces and motion workshop includes building propeller cars and constructing KNEX bridge models. The propeller cars we developed are simple to build, and they can travel up to 40ft using elastic energy from few rubber bands. This activity will help students gain an in-depth understanding of the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. The bridge model activity challenges students to build a bridge to withstand a 2kg weight using KNEX parts. They will learn how adding trusses to a structure can strengthen bridges in the real world.
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Light Ray Box Kit |
Convex Lens Merging Light Rays |
Finally, the light workshop we developed has eight or more engaging and fun practical activities to give students an in-depth understanding of how light waves travel. I designed several activities using light ray boxes to carry out reflection, refraction, and diffraction experiments. The diffraction experiments include splitting a beam of white light into its color spectrum. We also bought wooden pinhole cameras for students to show students how images are captured inside cameras. Moreover, students will create Newton's disc using a motor and a glowing star constellation to learn how stars become visible at night.
You can explore our range of STEM workshops here.
