BSOD

 What is the Blue Screen of Death? What does it mean, and how can we recover from it? A-level computing students find out how to fix the machine so it works again.

Rusting

 Three test tubes after a few weeks. The staple in water and air had all but rusted away, the one in air but no water was untouched, and the one with water and no air because of the oil had only a joint of rusting. The students had to explain why.

Elastic Collisions

Using the magnets on two smartcarts to demonstrate elastic collisions. Using the @pascoscientific Capstone, the before and after graphs can quickly be compared to show the change in momentum and that it is conserved.

 

Practical Maths

 Practical Math. It is okay to do some Math problems, but sometimes it is nice to see and understand the Physics behind them. What is an elastic collision? Watching the Newtons cradle gave an idea about what the Mechanics problem was all about.

Goldleaf Electroscope

 The Goldleaf electroscope is such a simple piece of equipment yet one of the most useful. I have tried this with dutch metal but only with gold leaf does it work exceptionally well. With a decent UV light is demonstrates the photoelectric effect well.

Investigating mint and garlic

 Microbiology at A Level: Investigating the effect of Mint and garlic extracts on bacteria cultures. Which one is the most effective and why? Are there any other plant extracts that work like this? So, in addition, we are investigating some other herbs to see if they kill bacteria too.

Hardness of the Alkali Metals

Investigating the reactivity and properties of the Alkali Metals. Cutting each of the metals in turn with a sharp scalpel. Lithium was the hardest and stayed shiny the longest, and Potassium was the easiest to cut and tarnished as it was cut.