Centripetal Force

For our last Science Club meeting we learned about Centripetal Force. Centripetal force is a force, which keeps a body moving with uniform speed along a circular path. We did two experiments to deminstrate this law of motion.
First: was swinging a cup in a circle on a piece of cardboard with strings. The cup had water in it, so if you could keep the cup moving in a circle motion with consistant speed the water would not spill.








Second we made cotton candy, which is a real world example of centripetal force, (just like riding on a roller coaster).

Energy Conversion

Last meeting was full of exciting inventions! We put the students in groups of three and had them come up with their own invention to protect a egg (light blub) so when it was dropped it would not break. We talked about gravity and the two different types of energy that pull our egg downward, potential energy and kinetic energy.

Here are some pictures of the students working on their designs!!

Electricity

For our second club meeting we learned all about Electricity!!


First, we learned about static electricity, we did an experiment using a balloon and a fluorescent light tube. We rubbed the balloon up and down on the tube which causes charged particles (electrons) to build up on the surface of the balloon and charges the mercury vapor inside the tube. The charged mercury vapor caused the fluorescent chemicals inside the tube to produce visible light.
Second, we made an electromagnet with a battery, wire, and a nail. The current in the wire creates a magnetic effect. A weak magnetic field is created around a wire carrying an electric current. This magnetic field gets stronger as the wire is coiled into a smaller space. The iron nail becomes magnetized inside the coiled wire and attracts the paper clips.
Third, we discussed conductors and insulators and let the kids test different materials to let them see which was a conductor and which was a insulator.

We made many interesting discoveries with these experiments!!

Our third year!!!

Science club is back for our third consecutive year!! We believe this will be our best year yet! We are so excited to have Adrienne Walker back as our science teacher!
We will meet every Tuesday for 5 weeks!
This week we will be learning about starch and doing some fun chemistry experiments to go along with it! Get ready to have a lot of fun and as an added bonus you will be learning!! :)