PHYSICS-IN-ACTION FOR PREP STUDENTS AT BELS
The current Prep-year students entered the world of
practical physics with two days of hands-on activities
that culminated in the presentation of their Rube
Goldberg Machines in January 2016.
For those of you who are not familiar with Rube
Goldberg and his awesome machine designs, please
have a look at the drawing below to see how a system
can be engineered to be an interesting conglomeration
of intricately connected simple machines that work
together to perform a simple task, such as the “frying of
an egg”, in an ‘over-the-top’ application of Physics.
the workshop, they moved from one work-station to the
next, performing investigations and hands-on activities
that provided much needed practice for using handtools
and stimulating creative thinking, all with “Science
in Action” in mind.
PHYSICS
DEPARTMENT
The BELS 2016/2017 Prep students designed and
constructed mechanisms that were to incorporate six
simple machines with the aim to “Pop a Balloon”. The
design-brief required an execution time of 2minutes
before the balloon was actually popped.
Here are some of the activities and students in action:
Using a chemical reaction as a stimulus and process to
produce a gas, Physics students experienced the link
between Physics and Chemistry while investigating gas
pressure, elasticity, and destructive testing. The resultant
gas was then tested and used as a fire extinguisher and
observing the effect of gas-densities in a (practical)
application of Science in Everyday Life.
Other work stations included an investigation of friction
of a vehicle on different surfaces, and also experiments
with heat, looking at expansion and contraction by using
hot water to move a cooked egg into a glass bottle. The
biggest challenge was to get the egg out of the bottle
afterwards though… :)
And what will an engineering challenge be without a
bridge-building competition…?
Hence, behold the creative process of building bridges:
A practical demonstration with accompanying
commentary was evaluated on the 16th of January
2016, with amazing results…! Leading up to the big
Rube Goldberg Day, all Prep students participated in a
fun-filled skill’s-development workshop at BELS. During
THE CLAPPER 2016 - 2017 47