The force from a wire

 Doing an online experiment to demonstrate the force a wire can make when travelling through a small magnetic field

Learning to use a pipette

 Learning to use science equipment is just as important as learning about science. Something I find that many students lack, as is designing experiments - not just the ones they have to design ,but doing science by enquiry.

Capillary Rise

 Syllabi change and some bits of science drop out of syllabi, but the science doesn't change and learning about some of these other things is vital to what the students need to know - like capillary tubes and how they work

Boosting onto year 13

 Some down time in the holiday is an excellent time for getting ahead and with year 13 work and revising some of the old year 12 work keeping the hand in on the old C1 and C2 papers. 

Rates of Reaction

Studying rates of reaction is possibly one of the easiest and hardest things to study in chemistry. Looking at concentration, particle size and temperature and then at A level measuring the rate and determining what is going on.
 

Induction Apparatus

 

Trying out the Eisco Induction Apparatus to induce a current using a magnet or a coil within a coil or as a coil within a coil with an iron core to dramatically increase the effect

Investigating Friction

Trying out different frictional surfaces and different objects to see how different shapes and surfaces work. The students were surprised at the results which were not as obvious as they thought.

Carpet had a higher frictional co-efficient  than the glass-paper and in took quite of investigating to find out why.

 

Setting up a microscope

 Setting up and using a compound microscope. Although the students have used them many times, they forget how to focus away from the slide and struggle to set up the lighting properly 

Calculating the acceleration due to Gravity

 Calculating the acceleration due to Gravity online using the @Pascoscientific picket Fence and and the light gate in its stand. After 20 repeats we managed an average of 9.765, which I felt was quite good for doing this online - live in front of an audience telling me what to do.

Young-Laplace Law

Hookean showed a nice demo of differential pressure that I hadn't tried before. When I tried to reproduce it I got very different results in the experiment and had to look into the history books of what was going on

 

Photosynthesis

 With the high temperatures and lots of sunlight, it seemed a good idea to look at photosynthesis. With the plants working well we got excellent results

Staining Cells

 Trying to see cells is difficult, so often we use stains to make parts of the cell stand out. Straining is not easy, you have to choose the right stain or stains and the preparation is important, so practice is important and an important part of learning.

55.4 C Pavement temp

 Looking at the temperature of the pavement outside the classroom, a Modest 55.4C at 11am today. Talking a dog for a walk will probably burn its feet.

Fun with Maths

 

Even with the A level students dressing up problems with a few pictures makes it more fun. Challenge to rescue the princess under European Union H&S ladder regulations (made up). Interesting the choice of princess names determines the want to rescue her. 

frying an egg in the sun | UK Heatwave 2022

We tried and succeeded in frying an egg in the Mid Day sun in the current heat wave

Dangerous experiment

Its a big or dangerous or tricky experiment - one of those "to demo". But is is better to have one student very closely supervised to do the demo in front of the class. The next time a demo comes along have another student demo the experiment after they have practiced it

 

Making craters on the Moon

 

Magnetic Film

Demo of see through magnetic film for looking at magnetic fields Marvellous stuff through Amazon
 

Programming Hardware

 Programming circuits to do something gives great feedback whether the light goes on or the lift rises. But getting the students to design those circuits is another problem altogether.

Air Quality

It might be going to get hot, but how will this affect the Air quality? I have the @thepocketlab air quality sensor out to record the data as well as the temperature
 

Recording the Heatwave

 

Setting up the @pascoscientific wireless weather sensor to record the heatwave. The Sensor has great data logging facilities so I can track the temperature over the next few days

Getting a very thin Slice

 Using a microtome (safe) and a cut throat razor (not safe) to get thin sections of a pineapple leaf. We managed some good slides.

The best fuel

How does the length of the carbon chain affect the heat given out by different alcohols burning. The students had to design the most efficient way of capturing all the heat, and eventually understood about the amount of energy in bonds.

Partial Fractions

 Working from GCSE to A level and from year 1 to year 2 at A Level. Spending some "slack time" catching up with things gone by and new ideas to come.

Long Scale Galvanometer

 My long scale Galvanometer arrived, so now it is considerably easier to see evens rather than trying to observe a needle flickering. So now we should be able to do some more interesting experiments

Investigating ECG

Investigating the students ECG using the @Pascoscientific sensor and Capstone to gather and analyse the data. This gave a clear view of what was going on in the heart of healthy A level Biology students
 

Chromatic Bells

 Looking at Chromatic bells. Why is a scale a scale? How do the black notes work? What are the frequencies? Is the gap the same? Having some fun with music and physics.

Melting Gallium

The students complained about the Heat. I agreed and said it was hot enough outside to melt metal. No they said, but we took the Gallium outside and sure enough it turned to liquid.

Distillation

 Separating and collecting a liquid from two or more liquids. After the students had fermented some orange juice we collected some nice smelling alcohol which burnt really well. Surprised a few students that it did burn.

Damped Harmonic Motion

Using the @Pascoscientific smartcart and Capstone to record the damped harmonic motion as the cart moves up and down the track. Adding to the mass of the cart can achieve almost complete damping
 

Ready for Microbiology

Getting ready to do some microbiology experiments. Agar plates prepared and bacteria happily growing in the broth. Now to find ways to kill them with plants from the garden.

Specific Heat Capacity with and without a Joulemeter

 

Specific Heat capacity can be determined using a Joulemeter or an Ammeter, Voltmeter and timer, but which is best for helping the students learn especially when some questions use volts amps and time.

Pocket lab G-force has Arrived

 The Pocketlab G-force car has arrived from across the Pond, so now we can start to make some videos using it. I was quite excited when I saw this on Kickstarter and order straight away. Now to charge it and use it.

Making a glass spreader

 A job for a quiet Sunday. Making glass spreaders for bacterial colonies, ready to do some experiments about natural antiseptics found in common plants on the growth of bacteria. We will also look at the effectiveness of kitchen surface cleaners.

Electromagnetic Braking

 Lenz's Law application - making an electromagnetic brake using a strong magnet and non-magnetic Aluminium

Analog Computing

How do analog computers compare to digital ones? Can students easily program them and get anything useful out? These computers are on the rise and need to be with  with our array of Macs, Windows, and Unix machines and the data gathering Physics sensors and phones.