Making Telephones

We learned that Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone. We learned the sound was carried along the string. The tighter we pulled the string the better the sound travelled!

Volcano Eruption

Today we were amazed when we made our very own volcano erupt!

Volcano

Halloween Walk

Thanks to a lovely mammy for all the great photos 

Crazy Craig

We learned some really interesting things from the mad scientist who visited our school. We thought he was a bit like a magician. We learned alot about something that is all around us but which is invisible. Some very clever children knew the answer, air! We learned how to make a ping pong ball float. The airflow from the hair dryer pushes the ping pong ball upwards until its upward force equals the force of gravity pushing down on it. We learned about hover crafts and one lucky boy had a turn on a hover craft. We learned all about air and if we suck air out of objects we can create a vacuum. A vacuum makes it impossible to pull objects away from each other. We learned the power of little objects when placed correctly. They can take a lot of weight when it's distributed evenly.

An experiment to try at home

Have fun with science.

Can you control a ping pong ball as it floats above a hair dryer? Put your hand-eye coordination skills to the test while learning the important role that forces such as gravity and air pressure play in this simple experiment for kids.


What you'll need:

At least 1 ping pong ball (2 or 3 would be great)
A hair dryer


Instructions:

Plug in the hair dryer and turn it on.
Put it on the highest setting and point it straight up.
Place your ping pong ball above the hair dryer and watch what happens.


What's happening?

Your ping pong ball floats gently above the hair dryer without shifting sideways or flying across the other side of the room. The airflow from the hair dryer pushes the ping pong ball upwards until its upward force equals the force of gravity pushing down on it. When it reaches this point it gently bounces around, floating where the upward and downward forces are equal.

The reason the ping pong ball stays nicely inside the column of air produced by the hair dryer without shifting sideways is due to air pressure. The fast moving air from the hair dryer creates a column of lower air pressure, the surrounding higher air pressure forces the ping pong ball to stay inside this column, making it easy to move the hair dryer around without losing control of the ping pong ball.

See if you can float 2 or even 3 ping pong balls as an extra challenge.

Crazy Craig

http://animoto.com/play/Ci2MVX6Vb0CO9c09eua0BQ