MAKING CIRCUITS

Today some of us were lucky enough to work with Ian from Digital Circus. His company is helping our school to develop our Digital Technology Curriculum. We discussed what we know about electricity, and learned that electricity can be stored in batteries. We also learnt that the circuit must be complete for the electricity to flow through. Then we were let loose to create circuits, using batteries to make LEDs light up. It was lots of fun and we hope we get to do more of this work soon! 

Challenge 1: using playdough to complete the circuit, make the LED light up. Things to remember: use the long 'leg' of the LED on the positive side, or it won't work!

Challenge 2: add a second LED and see if you can make them both light up! 

Challenge 3: make the playdough into 'rocket' and 'flame' shapes and make three LEDs light up.

Challenge 4 (for fast finishers): make a shape of your choice and add extra batteries/LEDs to complete more circuits.

Beau and Cooper getting very excited that their two LEDs are working









  Such concentration!

Braxton and Jayden feeling very proud after making their rocket light up!

 Extra challenge: make a different shape and see how many parts you can make light up! This flower was made by Madison and Isalei. 

DANCING STICK FIGURES

Ms Udy showed us a science experiment on Friday that was very tricky to master, but lots of fun! We started by drawing a simple stick figure with a whiteboard marker. We drew them on a shiny surface, like a ceramic or glass plate. Then we carefully poured water over the stick figures, and some of them lifted off the plate and 'danced' on the water! It was really cool!

We learnt that it works because of three properties of the special ink in whiteboard markers:
1. The ink is designed to not stick very hard to a surface (so it can be erased)
2. The ink is lighter than water
3. The ink doesn't dissolve in water (it is insoluble)

We loved blowing on the figures, or jiggling the plate, to make them dance.

MAKE IT MONDAY - PUPPET MAKING CHALLENGE

Welcome back to School for Term Two!

We had a great day today with our first Make it Monday challenge for the term. 

OUR FIRST MAKE IT MONDAY - HELPFUL ROBOT CHALLENGE

Today was our first Make it Monday.  This is a great way for us to learn to Te Ako Ritenga - our Learning Process at Riverdale School.

Have a look at what we got up today...