F1 with a Geography slant and creating a newspaper front page

Change of date this week Wed. not Tuesday

Hi everyone sorry to mention this at this late stage but both Mr. Hamshaw and I are both unavailable for Tuesday this week HOWEVER we have re-scheduled for the Wednesday.
It is an important meeting when we will give you details of the next F1 challenge from which we hope to enter a national competition.
So, Not Tuesday 17th but Wednesday 18th.

Torch..ing stuff at BGS

This useful kit makes two torches. One of which uses a membrane switch.

Making a brace of torches

Wonderful session - using a DMC torch kit we attempted, mostly successfully to build two torchs. The introduction of a pressure switch to the students - referred to as a membrane switch proved very interesting. Well done everyone.

F1 will continue after half term - who will win? Who will represent BGS at area meetings? Time,..... and weather conditions will determine this soon

Get ready to race....ahead

Hi STEMSTERS -we hope to start soon and are looking at Tuesday nights again. Earlier we thought that we would have to use Mondays as the main night so it is good to keep Tuesdays. Inevitably we will need to be a little flexible at times and use another night so keep checking or see me at school.

Look forward to seeing you all.
looks like first session will be on Tuesday 29th Sept. MORE INFO SOON.
Mr. Geekie
Mr. Hamshaw
Mr. Goodwin jnr

Optimum stomp rocket size

A4 wide - that is 210mm of photocopy thin card ( 160 GSM )
rolled around the 22mm waste pipe tube ( from local DIY ) snug but loose fit.
Nose cone approx 80mm long ( but try longer ) and filled with 2 crumpled sheets of copier paper ( 80 GSM )
Fin size 50mm high and 50 mm wide.
This rocket reached at least 50 metres using a 2 litre bottle.

Have a great time and perhaps send us a link to your video.
If we can help others to get the best results or just to compare please contact us.

Happy summer to everyone and thankyou for your support... so until September ... have a STEMTASTIC holiday.

Last session - fantastic first year

Okay so this is it. WE have reached the end of a fantastic first year. We want to carry on with the STEM CLUB next year ( into year 8 ) and have many plans.
On this last session we experimented to ascertain the best criteria for a stomp rocket - pure fun with logical testing and evaluation combined,
Results posted soon.

Penultimate stem session of term ( Summer term 2009 )

Sorry to everyone about the meeting needing to be on a Monday evening. We had to do this due to other commitments. Same for the last week - next Monday ( 5th July )

Photos to come soon.

The attendance was low as some students did not remember that we had said it was to be a Monday - nevertheless we had a good session which looked at one variable per rocket. Next session we will test each rocket and log the results before designing the ultimate stomp rocket.

Wednesday 24th June just before JG birthday

Well what a wonderful session. All the staff were impressed with you all. The rockets made us think about extension work and we are planning a follow up next week. PLEASE NOTE we need to meet on MONDAYS for the next and last 2 weeks of this years programme. Did you look up "para"?
Photos soon.
Is it YOUR birthday ... I heard someone say (o)

Looking at rockets. Pictures soon

These pictures show boys making stomp rockets - previously they had made small rockets which used a straw for propulsion via a good exhalation of air.

8th June - testing the bridges

The bridges all supported books - but some better than others.
The results were 10 books, 20 books, 30 books, 48 books,and 69 books.

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

Apart from team 6 all teams completed their bridge models ready for testing next week. Team 6 need to pop along to see me before testing to complete their model.

NEW unscheduled session WED 3rd JUNE 2009

As we mentioned at the last meeting... and seeing as the bridge building is taking us a little longer than anticipated we are having an extra meeting on the 3rd June. It needs to be a Wednesday due to staff commitments elsewhere.

2nd week images of bridge building- click to enlarge

The PVA glue needed time to set and also we have experienced some difficulty fixing gussets to the individual sides. Be interesting to see our end testing - however will need another session before then.

Week 2 of the bridge building exercise incl PLTS evaluation

The bridge building is progressing well - however it is proving to be a little more time consuming than we thought.

More images of bridge building

Images of the start of bridge building - over 2 weeks

Here are some images of students completing their PLTS sheets and starting to make their bridges.

Personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS) and bridge building part 1

Making students stop...think and consider - an exercise featuring PLTS thinking. Here students can be seen working collaboratively assessing strengths and weaknesses good and bad points about both themselves and as a group.

STEM bridging the gap using straws