Draft Design for a Complex Machine to Generate Electricity from Water Power

Alexander is designing a “complex machine” for his 8th grade science class. He recorded a short AudioBoo today and described his design, which I photographed and embedded below. Please share comments and feedback.

Complex Machine Design

I shared the “Sweeping Down the Plains” STEM project from K20-ALT with him this week for ideas and inspiration. See Video Part 2 on the project page, starting at the 4:46 point to see the design for an electrical generator/dynamo using a wind generator design. The Google Doc lesson plan includes the supplies used for their project. This extremely clever design uses a CD, neodymium magnets from AmazingMagnets.com, a wooden skewer like those used on a BBQ grill, a suction cup, and other inexpensive items. Hat tip to Adam Zodrow for sharing this amazing project with me a few weeks ago. See this post and podcast on Oklahoma EDUshare for more info about this project and K20-ALT.

I’m thinking Alex’s greatest challenge will be building the water wheel, gears, and the dynamo. This is going to be a great opportunity for problem solving, engineering, design and tinkering!

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Sarah’s Bread and Humidity Experiment

Today was the science fair at our local elementary school, and Sarah shared what she learned about humidity and the science of baking bread. I brought my iPhone and interviewed her (using iPadio) at her exhibit in the cafeteria, and took several photos as well.

Chisholm 4th Grade Science Fair - 2010

Chisholm 4th Grade Science Fair - 2010

Adding the yeast

Kneading bread can be messy!

Bread loaves after rising (humid on the right)

Humidity makes bread dough rise less

Bread rising under dry conditions gets bigger!

It took about three minutes to upload this almost-four minute audio podcast to iPadio with my iPhone over 3G from the school cafeteria.

Uploading iPadio

It’s great to have opportunities to talk about what the students have learned as a result of DOING science. I really enjoyed the opportunity to not only visit with Sarah but also several of her classmates about their projects and learning.

Chisholm 4th Grade Science Fair - 2010

(Cross-posted to Wesley’s Posterous)

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A few favorite photos from Washington DC today

Here are a few of my favorite photos I snapped today in Washington D.C. with Alexander. I added all of these to my NECC 2009 Flickr Set.

Alexander on the Mall

At the Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Alexander and Dad by the Apollo Capsule

This is the first time I’ve seen a Tomahawk cruise missile up close.

The Tomahawk Cruise Missile

We were able to not only see but also TOUCH several enormous meteorites today at the Smithsonian Natural History museum, including this one from Arizona:

A meteorite from Arizona

The exhibit on the Mishin diaries and the light they shed on the Soviet moon landing plans was very interesting to me

The Mishin Diaries shed light on Soviet moon landing plans

This was the “designed but never used” Soviet cosmonaut moon suit:

The designed but never used Soviet cosmonaut moon suit

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) exhibit was definitely the highlight of the day for me.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

I incorrectly called these “unarmed aerial vehicles” near the end of the video sequence I recorded at the exhibit today. These are definitely NOT “unarmed.”

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