STEM at BGS - Please use search facility below to find items on this blog

Goodbye

2011-07-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Okay tonight was the end of our 3 year STEM club. I was hoping the kites I bought everyone would have been easier to fly. Remember what I say about kites - the ones you make yourselves are usually better fliers and also more satisfying to make.

I will value the support, enthusiasm and generally exploring the many areas we have covered over the years. I have always enjoyed the club and to all who have attended and helped - thankyou. You have made my last 3 years in teaching very enjoyable and at times have even helped me remember some of the reasons I became a teacher.

To all the STEMSTERS out there, keep experimenting, asking why, listening, being diligent and optimistic. You are our future. Good luck to you all - please thank your parents for all their support and encouragement - even teachers like to hear it.

Mr. Geekie
Teacher ( retired )
PS check out my ART blog.

Flying kites - even with poor wind

2011-06-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

First of all well done everyone on making your kites. The sleds in particular suffered with the lack of wind and even the deltas struggled. However this is one of the trials of flying kits - we need some wind. Next week I will be away and so I will see you all the week after. I will make some MALAY kites and show you how to fly them.

Best wishes,
Mr Geekie

KITES and more ... KITES

2011-06-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Great night preparing kites for flying next week.
Year 7 students with the help of Mr.Goodwin made SLED kites and will test these next week.
Year 9 with Mr. Geekie made some DELTA kites to fly next week.

Kite making is all about symmetry and balance - hopefully we will all see some great flying next week.
Health and safety is important when flying kites, in particular no flying when skies are overcast or indeed raining as there is a possibility of static electricity causing severe injury. Mr Geekie will repeat this and other safety issues before flying.

PS If you are reading this - try to bring along a can pull ring - will be used to help attach kite to flying line.
Remember the Japanese saying " You make a kite - you have friend for life "

Sorry I missed last session

2011-06-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, to year 7 students - I will be at school next week
( Tuesday 21st June )
and the intention is to look into kites. We will make a simple SLED KITE first. This will lead onto making a great DELTA kite, the following week.
Year 9 students are welcome to help out.
( I am struggling to source wheels for our downhill cart )

Mr. Geekie

Summer term 2011

2011-04-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
I have mentioned that, although taking early retirement, I have been asked to continue the club into the Summer term. I am delighted to be able to do so and will continue the second week back after Easter. I will be looking at one day a week so year 7 and year 9 will need to combine. The night will be Tuesdays.
Looking forward to seeing Y9 complete their trebuchet and for year 7 we will be starting a new programme.

Regards and best wishes

Mr. Geekie

HOVERCRAFT mixture of designs

2011-02-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some students ( STEM Club ) making hovercraft.
From early development work we have improved the designs
to reflect some ingenious thinking.

ROBOT MOUSE

2011-02-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

TWO STEM STUDENTS BEGINNING TO ASSEMBLE A ROBOT MOUSE.
CHECK BACK SOON TO SEE IF
THEY COMPLETED IT.

TANDEM HOVERCRAFT ?

2011-02-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

HERE WE EXPERIMENTED WITH TWO SMALLER HOVERCRAFT MOULDS.
WE VACUUM FORMED THEM IN TANDEM TO PRODUCE AN
EFFICIENT HOVERCRAFT.

AN INTERESTING 3 MOROR ARRANGEMENT

2011-02-16T11:12:00.000-08:00

GOOD EXAMPLE OF THINKING DIFFERENTLY.
SOME BALANCE PROBLEMS - BUT EASILY EVALUATED AND SOLVED - GOOD JOB.

Stemsters' building 'bots at BGS

2011-02-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

Great fun - lots of imagination and originality.

Making FOOTBALL robots

2011-01-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

Good little kit - provides all parts needed except battery. Can be challenging to assemble - but rewarding.
Pictures below.

Stirling motor

2011-01-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

Making a STIRLING motor is quite tricky. One of our STEM stars is trying to put a working model together, with occasional assistance.

Making a steady hand game

2011-01-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

Easy to make little project - can be made from a kit - basic electrical competence - can be extended easily. A good project for STEM students to lead a younger Y7 class.

Notice to interested teachers

2011-01-17T07:42:00.000-08:00

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you feel you could use any of the materials on the blog. I will gladly have a word with you or you can contact me via email ( john.geekie@bgs.eril.net . I have some nets of simple automata which could be used with KS3 students and I will be pleased to send to you as required. These can be seen on my KS3 blog on the www.beverleygrammarschool.co.uk site.

Starting Spring Term - year 3 tomorrow

2011-01-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to everyone and welcome back.

Hope to do a lot of exciting things this term,

manipulative buzzer / light alarm toy
postcard radio,
sound collecting device
sound emitting ( loudspeaker via mini amp ) device

to name a few.
Possible trip to the DEEP in Hull - keep checking with me about this.

Next evening session - Wednesday subject to weather

2010-12-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Hello STEMsters, hoping to have last session of the year on Wednesday evening. Will explain future projects and targets - lot to fit in.

Cancel this week STEMSTERS will continue when weather improves

2010-11-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hope to make up lost time - lots of interesting projects to do, However commonsense stipulates that any risks must be eliminated regarding the awful weather.

Testing POP POP boats session at BGS

2010-11-24T14:10:00.002-08:00

Here are some more POP POP boats being tested.
A very impressive effort - next we move on to some electronics work.

Making our pop pop boats

2010-11-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

The students began to make and test their first pop pop boats tonight after school. We will be thinking about how to improve them and if we can add items such as funnels, superstructures etc.

Boats made from cans which have been press moulded into formers.We can make our own motors but to save time I have bought some motors for the students to fit.

Drinks consumed moulds started for POP POP boats

2010-11-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

Students this week needed to prepare for next week first by consuming fizzy drinks as we needed the cans. These will be used to make pop pop boat hulls and other parts.

This done we concentrated on making our propeller boats work. Lots of testing - solving stability - and buoyancy, adjustments failures and the need to redesign moulds to make them more buoyant.

Building Propeller power boats

2010-11-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Started by consuming a well known fixxy drink - need the cans to build steam engine in the near future. Needed to improve boat hulls this week - motors, props ( grp ) etc issued. Testing next week - will post pictures.

Stem Night moved to Wednesday 3rd November

2010-10-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hi STEMSTERS please note that I am away on Tuesday ( STEM at Sheffield Uni ) so the meeting needs to be on Wednesday this week.
NOT Tuesday but WEDNESDAY 3rd November.

Sorry for short notice

Stem boating sub plot

2010-10-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

Making hull and superstructure.
Developing our making skills utilising the vacuum former.

Well done on Y6 parents night

2010-10-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

It was a busy evening for visitors to come and see the school. We had STEMsters helping with the BUILD A TOWER challenge, also with the hands on boat building and testing, and with the vacuum forming. Wow I needed a rest after that.
Any parents who visited and would like me to send information about projects please call the school and leave a message.

Mr. Geekie

Boats - creating mould for vac forming

2010-10-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

We are making a mould to use to make a boat hull. This will be used to build two different boats. One submarine motor powered and one conventional screw propeller. We will look at the effect the different shapes have on timings.
Mr. Geekie

Towers and bridges in prep for Y6 parents evening

2010-10-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Pictures to come soon.

We are preparing to offer parents a 10 minute challenge to build a tower ( or bridge )using materials provided. The STEM..sters will assist. We are undertaking a fun version of a more complex challenge.
This is a simplified exercise which is available by sending me an email - I will gladly send file.

The exercise is part of a collection originally designed for sixth form leadership skills development and which are also used by universities and employers for selection / evaluation purposes.

Mr. Geekie

PARABOLIC MICROPHONE a stem club project

2010-10-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here I am testing the viability of making a parabolic microphone. We will be looking at "sound"( or should that be listening to ) later on the course - this is one aspect. I think you WILL ENJOY.

Mr. Geekie

Beginning boat design - bow shapes.

2010-09-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Trough set up to test how long a square ended boat took to cover a set distance. Times were 1.9 seconds average. After front was cut to provide a boat shape the time reduced to 1.12 seconds.
Project to continue.
Mr. Geekie.

Calendar now "live" and on display in my room

2010-09-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - I have sorted out the calendar for this, our final year of the original 3 year plan. It is on the web site and on display in my room.
Hope to start week after next ( Tuesday 28th Sept. )
First topic to involve h2o.

Mr. Geekie

Marble bridge problem

2010-09-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here students can be seen trying to solve a problem which requires transporting a marble from one tower to another.

Geography linking with STEM

2010-09-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

An interesting idea is to employ the popular newspaper simulation within STEM. Here our Head of Geography was welcomed to the club and he delivered and interesting one off session which required students to design a newspaper front page. The context revolved around F1 racing - thus linking with our F1 work.

Sled kite workshop

2010-06-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from the evening session from the 18th May 2010.
Sled kites are a reliable introduction into kite making and everyone succeeded in making a kite which flew well. It can be folded up easily for use later.

Balloon launch ... and chase, more to come

2010-05-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

Balloons

2010-05-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Pictures to come soon, what an evening. We launched successfully in the school hall and established that all was well with our balloons. Unfortunately the weather proved rather too blustery for efficient flying. This resulted in our frantic chasing after the liberated balloons only to see some unfortunate outcomes. One balloon was swallowed up by the local quarry ..... we think, and another after dodging a tree, became a torn victim of dubious retrieval methods.
We hold one balloon in reserve to fly in calmer conditions.

F1 with Mr.Hamshaw-Hart

2010-04-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

We have made some great progress with F1 - Mr. Hamshaw-Hart will explain to students tonight. Next session will be F1 and the following will be the BALLOON launch - weather permitting.
Mr. Geekie and Mr. Goodwin have been at a year 7 parents' evening.

F1 and out .... for now

2010-03-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

We ran a race to determine the details of our winner so we could send thes off for the regional competition, so fingers crossed
We will pick up the STEM CLUB after Easter. It will be the third week back when we will hopefully launch our hot air balloons.
Check the calendar in Mr. Geekie's room.

Calculating balloon volume

2010-03-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Mr Hamshaw led a very interesting session showing students how to calculate the volume of the balloons they had made. This involved references to calculus and also using some very clever software.
JG LHH

Next session

2010-02-03T09:37:00.000-08:00

As mentioned the next session will be the first week back after half term.
Check the calendar in Mr Geekie's room at school, that will be Tuesday 23rd February. This session will explore how we can calculate the volume of the balloon.

Hot air balloon session 3 - finishing balloons

2010-02-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

Really enjoyable session - here is an impression of the evening. The balloons will be launched after half term and it should be a bit special. We will need good, still weather - so let us keep our fingers crossed. The very next session will involve mathematics and examine the method of calculating the volume of the balloon.

Ballooning along - session 2

2010-01-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Mr. Geekie had stiff, sore knees after cutting all the profiles of your balloons. They are coming on well. Mr Hamshaw-Hart will look at volume calculations next week - an exciting prospect involving some deep maths!

Hot air ..........................balloon, starting the project

2010-01-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Okay here we are again, great to be back. I want everyone to make a hot air balloon - a BIG one which we can launch from school. We will look at air mass and also - using applied mathematics, calculate the volume of the variable shape balloon. This will be particularly interesting. Also we will look at CAD and how we can generate a swept profile thus creating a 3d object as a drawing.

Next meeting is on 19th Jan 2010

2010-01-14T04:23:00.000-08:00

Wow 2010 already.
The next session is looking at air density and we aim to start making some hot air balloons, Mr Geekie has made a large form for us to trace around - can anyone tell Mr. Geekie the correct name for this segmented shape???
Hope to see you all soon - Mr. Geekie

F1 with a Geography slant and creating a newspaper front page

2009-12-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

Change of date this week Wed. not Tuesday

2009-11-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone sorry to mention this at this late stage but both Mr. Hamshaw and I are both unavailable for Tuesday this week HOWEVER we have re-scheduled for the Wednesday.
It is an important meeting when we will give you details of the next F1 challenge from which we hope to enter a national competition.
So, Not Tuesday 17th but Wednesday 18th.

Torch..ing stuff at BGS

2009-10-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

This useful kit makes two torches. One of which uses a membrane switch.

Making a brace of torches

2009-10-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Wonderful session - using a DMC torch kit we attempted, mostly successfully to build two torchs. The introduction of a pressure switch to the students - referred to as a membrane switch proved very interesting. Well done everyone.

F1 will continue after half term - who will win? Who will represent BGS at area meetings? Time,..... and weather conditions will determine this soon

Get ready to race....ahead

2009-09-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hi STEMSTERS -we hope to start soon and are looking at Tuesday nights again. Earlier we thought that we would have to use Mondays as the main night so it is good to keep Tuesdays. Inevitably we will need to be a little flexible at times and use another night so keep checking or see me at school.

Look forward to seeing you all.
looks like first session will be on Tuesday 29th Sept. MORE INFO SOON.
Mr. Geekie
Mr. Hamshaw
Mr. Goodwin jnr

Optimum stomp rocket size

2009-07-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

A4 wide - that is 210mm of photocopy thin card ( 160 GSM )
rolled around the 22mm waste pipe tube ( from local DIY ) snug but loose fit.
Nose cone approx 80mm long ( but try longer ) and filled with 2 crumpled sheets of copier paper ( 80 GSM )
Fin size 50mm high and 50 mm wide.
This rocket reached at least 50 metres using a 2 litre bottle.

Have a great time and perhaps send us a link to your video.
If we can help others to get the best results or just to compare please contact us.

Happy summer to everyone and thankyou for your support... so until September ... have a STEMTASTIC holiday.

Last session - fantastic first year

2009-07-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Okay so this is it. WE have reached the end of a fantastic first year. We want to carry on with the STEM CLUB next year ( into year 8 ) and have many plans.
On this last session we experimented to ascertain the best criteria for a stomp rocket - pure fun with logical testing and evaluation combined,
Results posted soon.

Penultimate stem session of term ( Summer term 2009 )

2009-07-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry to everyone about the meeting needing to be on a Monday evening. We had to do this due to other commitments. Same for the last week - next Monday ( 5th July )

Photos to come soon.

The attendance was low as some students did not remember that we had said it was to be a Monday - nevertheless we had a good session which looked at one variable per rocket. Next session we will test each rocket and log the results before designing the ultimate stomp rocket.

Wednesday 24th June just before JG birthday

2009-06-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well what a wonderful session. All the staff were impressed with you all. The rockets made us think about extension work and we are planning a follow up next week. PLEASE NOTE we need to meet on MONDAYS for the next and last 2 weeks of this years programme. Did you look up "para"?
Photos soon.
Is it YOUR birthday ... I heard someone say (o)

Looking at rockets. Pictures soon

2009-06-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

These pictures show boys making stomp rockets - previously they had made small rockets which used a straw for propulsion via a good exhalation of air.

8th June - testing the bridges

2009-06-09T01:27:00.000-07:00

The bridges all supported books - but some better than others.
The results were 10 books, 20 books, 30 books, 48 books,and 69 books.

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

2009-06-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

Apart from team 6 all teams completed their bridge models ready for testing next week. Team 6 need to pop along to see me before testing to complete their model.

NEW unscheduled session WED 3rd JUNE 2009

2009-05-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

As we mentioned at the last meeting... and seeing as the bridge building is taking us a little longer than anticipated we are having an extra meeting on the 3rd June. It needs to be a Wednesday due to staff commitments elsewhere.

2nd week images of bridge building- click to enlarge

2009-05-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

The PVA glue needed time to set and also we have experienced some difficulty fixing gussets to the individual sides. Be interesting to see our end testing - however will need another session before then.

Week 2 of the bridge building exercise incl PLTS evaluation

2009-05-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

The bridge building is progressing well - however it is proving to be a little more time consuming than we thought.

More images of bridge building

2009-05-12T14:03:00.001-07:00

Images of the start of bridge building - over 2 weeks

2009-05-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of students completing their PLTS sheets and starting to make their bridges.

Personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS) and bridge building part 1

2009-05-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

Making students stop...think and consider - an exercise featuring PLTS thinking. Here students can be seen working collaboratively assessing strengths and weaknesses good and bad points about both themselves and as a group.

STEM bridging the gap using straws

2009-05-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

Using straws to make a bridge

2009-05-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Triangulation - bridge building with straws

2009-05-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

This turned out to be a fantastic session, would be good for others to try. Using bendy straws we made triangles and fixed them together to make 3 lengths. These were fixed together to make a bridge as shown here. Some worked while others failed.

Marbles passing from tower to tower

2009-03-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

This session introduced the notion of harmonics, frequency, oscillation, triangulation and, of course, solving problems. We talked about the Tacoma Narrows bridge failure , particular thanks to Mr. Hamshaw and we looked at a glass being broken with sound.
Homework - go home and try singing to a wine glass ... loudly and highly pitched... or simply run your finger lightly around a slightly dampened rim of a wine glass.. you s
hould hear the harmonic evidence of ocillating frequency. See video here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECNDpCYvaOc

Next meeting not until 5th May - happy Easter form Mr. Geekie and the team.

see video here
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/demoweb/demomanual/acoustics/effects_of_sound/breaking_glass_with_sound.html

Structures - continuing scientifically to explore shapes

2009-03-18T00:46:00.000-07:00

We built and destroyed paper structures to see which were the strongest.

More pictures from first structures session

2009-03-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

Structures, hexagons, compasses, honeycombes, tessellations and.... dandelions

2009-03-12T10:08:00.001-07:00

What an interesting session this evening.

We are starting a new topic which involves exploring structures. We talked about why a dandelion remained standing upright even when high winds had blown down fences, more about this next week.
We explored how to create a hexagon using a compass, and we built a large honeycomb which we then tested by standing on it. A really good introduction.
Tension and compression in a column was examined and our homework was to look up the word CONTRAFLEXURE and think why this could be relevant to a column under stress / loading.

Next Meeting March 11th ( a Wednesday )

2009-02-28T13:06:00.000-08:00

Look forward to seeing you all - anyone allergic to club biscuits? I am planning to bring some clubs for our club (:o)

Fibonacci gauge and Mac v windows

2009-02-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Well was'nt it busy again? Well done everyone with the Fibonacci gauge and calculating the Fibonacci sequence to 20 places. This gave an accurate golden mean / golden ration / golden proportion figure of 1:1.618. It was good to see so many students complete their gauges.
Well done to the movie maker boys working in our staffroom. I think the macintosh will beat the windows machine even when the windows OS is reloaded.

Next meeting is some time off due to examination pressures.It will be on Tuesday 10th March when we will examine structures.

HAVE A GREAT HALF TERM - TRY SOME EXPERIMENTS, MAKE A HOT AIR BALLOON, BUILD SOMETHING, MAKE SOMETHING, ORGANISE SEEDS FOR A HABGING BASKET.

MR GEEKIE

Weather concerns for tomorrow Monday 2nd Feb 09

2009-02-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

I am minded to say that I think we will have to consider postponing tomorrow's STEM session. The weather forecast is for severe weather, cold and with snow probable.
I will be at school to supervise students who could not make arrangements as usual.

If any concerns call me on 01482 870744 (home ) this evening.

Thankyou

Mr. Geekie

26th Jan 2009 Worlds first( ? ) straw derived Fibonacci inspired trees

2009-01-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

After some interesting facts about Fibonacci - thanks to our Mr.Hamshaw-Hart, and Mr. Geekie and Mr,Goowin....picture shows us beginning to build our trees.

Things are looking tree-shape
A tree completed
A forest completed.

Welcome back after Christmas, Our final hovercraft session.

2009-01-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

What a brilliant final session working on the hovercraft project. Next week we need to meet on Monday evening ( staff meeting on the Tuesday evening that week ). Regarding the hovercraft we experimented a little with the cushions ( bags ) and used a larger cushion to see what effects it had. We also looked at making simple steering rudders and how these affected the hovercraft.
We are moving on to structures - however we have not finished looking at hovercraft. Next year we will make larger models - possibly big enough to lift YOU...!!!

Can you find out what Fibonacci gave the western world - apart from his famous number sequence? Hint look up Liber abaci

Next meeting WED 20th Jan 09

2009-01-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

HOPE YOU ALL SURVIVED CHRISTMAS SAFELY, AND THAT YOU AVOIDED THE FLU BUG.

Just a reminder.
Please bring along your hovercraft models. We need to add bags to all - and experiment with larger bags. Also we need to tidy up our connections to the motors - we need to ensure the bare wires do not touch each other. I also want to show you how to make the wires more secure - and thus remove stressing the connections to the motor. The way things are going means - I think - that we may need to spread into T3 as well as T2.

The reason we are not starting straight away is due to planning meetings between the STEM staff. We need the first two evenings for this.

I am looking forward to seeing you all again and have plans for future projects which will be exciting and interesting.

MR.GEEKIE

STEM 2nd session 24th Nov.08

2008-12-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our second session - totally out of order but a record of what we tried nonetheless.

5th session making Mr. Geekie's hovercraft

2008-12-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

One or two problems to overcome - well done everyone. Do not forget to add the bag next session.
I will need someone to help upload images soon - see me for instruction.

BGS Stem Club

2008-12-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

The BGS STEMsters wish everyone season's greetings.

Tuesday 16th December 2008

2008-12-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Well I cannot believe we are here already. When I was planning our timetable it seemed a long way off ... but here we are.

Tonight, Monday 15th I stayed back .. and with help from Jack ( actually Jack did most of the work ) we made the vacuum formed hovercraft bodies.

This hovercraft was originally designed as a walk along working model. We had two long leads to the motor and held the battery ( 6v ) in our hands. We will try to get it to work with a 3 volt battery pack which will be carried on the hovercraft. This battery pack has a switch fitted which is very convenient for us.

Anyway we will see how it goes. We must be prepared to adjust the balance of the hovercraft - it will nee to be wel balanced to run smoothly.
As an extension we will try to think how we can steer the hovercraft.

Gyroscopic precession - this is a weird effect which might be tricky - do not try to understand this - but in future years I will explain it to you ... hopefully.

4th session - making the hovercraft kit 2 of 2

2008-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Not the easiest kit to assemble and get to work - so well done everyone. Lots of minor problems to overcome here but we all did so very well.

Hello STEMsters - next session

2008-12-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

We will try to get the hovercraft kits running this lesson. You can take them home after the session.
I have been developing a model which we can all build for another hovercraft. Hopefully we will finish this before Christmas.

For after Christmas
We briefly mentioned Fibonacci ( one of Technologies and Mathematics ... and of course Sciences' favourite people ) We will look at Fibonacci in some detail l8r.
Perhaps you can find out more about Fibonacci?
The number sequence is pretty straighforward and is easy to work out.
However, can you research more?
Deeper questions like,
When did he live?
How old was he when he died?
How tall was he,
and did he have any brothers or sisters.
Did he have any pets?

3rd session 2nd December 08

2008-12-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

After experimenting with balloons and CD's the students address a kit hovercraft. It is a simple but tricky to make design. Later we will make one I have designed.

Fibonacci tree - fun with mathematics

2008-11-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple little project to create a Fibonacci tree from drinking straws.

Thanks for cake disposal 2nd meeting report

2008-11-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,
On Monday evening we examined how to stabilise the balloon and stop it falling over. I loved the way students used drinking straws. These were the bendy type and were attached to the cd's with blutak? The results were colourful and mostly effective with 5 to 6 metres being achieved. Well done to the student who also tried making a paper tube support.
Next session I want to give a short input regarding some mathematics. This will be followed by building a hovercraft kit. I have bought enough batteries for everyone.

Hopefully the following session will feature vacuum forming and more hovercraft making.

STEM calendar

2008-11-23T23:45:00.000-08:00

Available here - may change as circumstances dictate.

STEM cake

2008-11-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

At our next meeting can someone remind me that we need to dispose of our birthday cake.

First STEM meeting

2008-11-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

Stem Calendar

2008-10-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Stem Calendar

Sept 29^th Sheffield Hallam – STEM induction Mr. Geekie and Mr Goodwin

Memo feedback to GT CRG GH PL JSG LH

Stem planning meetings 16^th October JG JSG LH info to GH GT CRG attended by JG JSG LH

Minutes to circulate

Stem Planning meeting post half term 4^th November ( Wednesday )
Aim to start 3rd week back see here
http://www.beverleygrammarschool.co.uk/bgsindex.htm