Swanmore's ASEC

2009-09-01T09:55:00.000+01:00

First Meeting Of The New Term is the 10th September - 3.15pm in S07!

2009-06-04T09:29:00.000+01:00

Welcome back!

The results of the Car Challenge were:

Rowan Corney

Richard Dowdney

Leah Hartnell

A very well done to all who competed; it was an excellent build!!

Special thanks to Mrs McNeil and Mrs Ryman, as to Mr Ford as our guest judge!

Photo's below

The Camper Van and Sports Car!

Mid- Build

TESTING!

Final Build!

2009-05-11T08:14:00.001+01:00

Don't forget -This Thursday is the last change to build your vehicle!

Main focus should be the electronics and forming the body!

THIS MEANS WE WILL BE TESTING OUR VEHICLES ACCORDING TO YOUR DESIGN BRIEF ON THE 21st MAY!

See you there!

Mr Foster

The New Term

2009-04-24T09:10:00.000+01:00

Welcome back!

Yesterday saw most of the vehicles nearing completion -with the body shape design ready for vacuum forming next session (a quick hint - make sure you measure the width of your body before constructing your template!)

No session next week - but back as normal in Mr H's room for the buiding the bodies on the 7th May with testing the week after.

Below are some Photo's and a Video from the Seige Engine workshop!

The finished articles

Some video of the 'Skittles'

Results

1 Alex, Richard & George

2 Sam & Rowan

3 Sophie/Leah

Well done all!

Mr F

Onwards!

2009-03-26T21:40:00.000Z

After the success of the Siege Engines and a good research session last week on designs and templates for our Wind Turbines - our next project started this week.

The aim is to design a motorised vehicle to try and compete in the following challenges

To climb the steepest slope
To Travel the fastest
To carry the heaviest load
To look the best!

All of the Chassis, motors and power packs are the same; but how it's built is up to each individual!

Today's initial build was great with some good stuff and great idea visible!

Watch this space for updates and photos!

Siege Engines Galore

2009-03-06T14:31:00.000Z

We had a really good build period this week - Some Excellent builds completed (or nearly completed!).

We have all sorts from Ballista's and Mangonels and a Trebuchet - see the photo's below!

Next week we will testing these out! - May the best one win!

A Mangonel

The Ballista

The Trebuchet

The Trebuchet in action!

All systems go!

2009-03-02T10:22:00.001Z

Right! After a few weeks absence - ASEC is back up and running.

Meeting in Mr Hedicker's Tech room at 1515 on Thursday 5th March.

We will be finishing the catapults!

See you there!

Mr F

Buillding!

2009-02-12T08:37:00.000Z

What a good session last week! Lots of construction went on and the catapults are now beginning to take shape! I am looking forwards to testing them!

There is no club this Thursday as there is an after school event on, so the next time we meet will the 5th March!

Were we shall finish of the designs and begin to test them!

Enjoy Half Term!

MR F

This Week

2009-02-04T16:07:00.001Z

Well = I hope you made the most of the snow! Looks like it's all gone now!

This Week!
We'll be building our catapaults - Meet outside W Block at 3.15pm!

Next Week
We'll be testing out catapaults!!!

Note - There is no ASEC meeting on the 26th Feb as it is Yr 10 Parents evening.

Mr F

Catapaults

2009-01-29T07:47:00.001Z

Don't forget to keep working on the designs! We'll start to build them on the 5th Feb. This week we're going to investigate our wind turbine...

Strange Custard

2009-01-16T07:58:00.000Z

Custard Bouncing Balls and Custard that is solid and then liquid! Brilliant. Well done everybody - a great & fun session today.
At the end of this post, are the details if you want to try this at home!

Next week is the start of a mini Design and Build project. I'll give you two words - Trebuchet & Mangonel!

We'll meet in S07 @ 3.15pm

See you next time!

Custard Behaving Strangely

Materials
Custard Powder
Water
A bowl

What to Do
Put most of the Custard in the bowl
Add water to the Custard until it starts behaving strangely - you will want at least twice as much cornflour as water, so don't add it too fast.

Try moving your hand through the liquid slowly, then fast, have a play with it.

What may Happen

You end up with a really strange mixture, with when you move slowly it will flow slowly, but if you try and change its shape quickly it goes hard. If you get the consistency right, you can even roll a ball out of it that will bounce, then when it stops, flow as a liquid again. It is known as a shear thickening liquid.

WHY?
Cornflour is made up of lots of tiny (<0.01mm) starch particles, these are very attracted to water so the water gets in amongst them very quickly.

The water acts as a lubricant, so when you move it slowly the particles have time to move past each other and they can flow like a liquid.
However if you apply a rapid force it causes the particles to move slightly causing the particles that are almost touching to jam together. and the water that was between them moves sideways slightly into the gaps.

Now instead of having lots of lubricated individual particles you have a solid structure of lumps touching each other which can't flow

Adapted from: http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/strange-cornflour-slime/

First Meeting!

2009-01-08T15:58:00.001Z

We did some preliminary studies off potential sites for the wind turbine around the school and began to draw up a list of things we needed to think about to make the project a reality!

This meeting you need to bring the following:

A wooden spoon

See you on Thursday!

Starting Out!

2008-11-28T08:22:00.000Z

What with the school being closed this week, it makes no sense having a deadline for applications when there is no-one here to pick up a form!

So the dates have been changed:

Application forms due in 8th December (don't forget to get them signed at home and by a STEM teacher!)
The first ASEC meeting will be on the 8th January 2009!

The Club will run on Thursdays in S07 from 1515 to 1615.

Some things to be thinking about:

How are we going to build a wind turbine?
What do we need to investigate or build?
What mini-projects would you like to do?