Diary Entry - January

I am now confident that the design is working well and will provide the platform for children to investigate ideas independently. When I applied to the Rolls Royce Science Prize, I always intended to use the opportunity to do something that was ordinarily outside the budget constraints of primary school science that embodied a genuine sense of enquiry. After initial testing the tunnel does everything we hoped it would.

The range of the instrumentation fits with the outputs from testing. I have now ordered the second tunnel as I am confident the basic design is sound. The aluminium discs which will be the blank template for the turbine designs have been laser cut in two thicknesses. Ken wanted to see how resilient the blades would be to repeated twisting and adjustment, while being able to remove blades when needed. It is important that the children can do all of these actions themselves. He is also designing a jig that will allow children to set accurate blade angles and keep the blades in line. This will be very important when testing 10, 20 and 30 degree blade angles.

The children were introduced to the challenge of replacing Trevor’s old turbine with their own design. They have started by looking at air resistance using the parachute and running with boards. They have also used a catapult to fire discs across the floor to consider what is causing them to slow down and stop. The investigation developed by giving the discs different surfaces to see if it affected how far they travelled. This will be the first of many fair testing tasks.

I have just finished making the paddles that the children will use to feel air resistance by waving them through the air.  As Year 4 were going swimming I asked them to see what happened as they try to run through water.

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