Bristol Bots and Homopolar motors

Students assembled Bristle Bots from kits purchased through a RCEF grant. They assembled the mini robots with a partner using a small motor, battery, and toothbrush head. Then we dipped them into primary color paint and let them run on a white piece of paper. We had a visiting high school student who is doing a Career Exploration Passage on mechanical and electrical engineering.

Students also attempted a simple homopolar motor. We got the templates from Babbledabbledo.com.

Acids, Bases and Batteries... oh my!

Science elective students built a battery using galvanized nails, copper wire and vinegar. They tested it with an led, but unfortunately it failed. Science is full of failures! It is how we learn. 

 Safety is first in science elective, so students adorned safety glasses and aprons to protect themselves from any chemical reactions.

 

Say science!

 Students also tore purple cabbage leaves to blend with water to extract the color in the food processor. Then they strained the pulp and poured the juice into test tubes. We expected the juice to be purple, but it was green. Another failure because the color did not change for our experiment. We experimented with acids and bases, which should have changed the color of the liquid. We tested milk, baking soda, baking powder, coffee, lemon juice, orange juice, laundry detergent, dish detergent, and alka seltzer.

Alka seltzer and cabbage juice

Help Save Fred!

Students worked in pairs to complete the task of saving their gummy worm Fred by getting him into the life saver. This is from: http://mastrianascience.wikispaces.com/file/view/Save+Fred%5B1%5D.pdf
and teaches them to be problem solvers and work together. After the activity, they created a flow chart and reflected on the process. Most groups rated the activity four or five stars on the enjoyment factor.