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Build Your Own Wind Turbine
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Learners construct an electricity-generating wind turbine out of a plastic bottle.
Fan Cart
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If a sailboat is stranded because there is no wind, is it possible to set up a fan on deck and blow wind into the sail to make the boat move?
Building a Basic Series Circuit
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This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to build and examine a basic electrical circuit.
Water Body Salinities I
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In this activity, learners investigate the different salinity levels of oceans, rivers and estuaries.
Electroplating
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In this electrochemistry activity, learners will explore two examples of electroplating.
Laser Lissajous: PVC Version
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In this activity, learners use a laser pointer and two small rotating mirrors to create a variety of fascinating patterns, which can be easily and dramatically projected on a wall or screen.
Kinetic Sculpture: Program the Pico Cricket to Make Your Art Light Up or Spin
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Use a Pico Cricket (micro-controller) to animate your art! You can program a Pico Cricket to make your art spin, light up, or make music.
Conductivity Meter
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In this activity, learners build a simple qualitative conductivity tester with a battery, bulb and foil.
Aluminum-Air Battery: Foiled again!
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Construct a simple battery that's able to power a small light or motor out of foil, salt water, and charcoal. A helpful video, produced by the Exploratorium, guides you along on this activity.
Human Battery
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Learners place their hands on different metals and use an ammeter to monitor the flow of electricity from one metal to another.
Smart Domino Tricks
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In this activity, you take regular dominoes, and turn them into conductive switches that can turn on a LEGO RCX block or Pico Cricket (micro controller). LEGO RCX block or Pico Cricket is required.
Make a Speaker: A Coil, a Magnet, and Thou
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Make your own simple speaker so you can listen to your favorite radio station. Just wind a coil, attach it to a piece of cardboard or Styrofoam, hold a magnet nearby, and listen.
Musical Sculpting Machine: Squeeze Play-Doh to Make Music
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Play-Doh is conductive! Use the semiconductive qualities of Play-Doh to make your own squeezable instrument. Pico Cricket is required.
Build a Bubble Circuit
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In this engineering design challenge, learners make a bubble maze that allows bubbles to move through a series of “on” and “off” switches.
Fruit Xylophone: Fruit Salad Instrument of the Future!
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This is a perfect summertime lunch activity! Pico Cricket is required (micro controller). First, get a bunch of cut up fruit, line them up, then plug a piece of fruit with a Pico Cricket sensor clip.
Interactive Pencil Drawings: Drawings That Tell a Story!
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Margaret Pezalla-Granlund, a Minnesota artist, came up with this really fun and surprising activity using graphite from a pencil, connected with a Pico Cricket to tell a story: "The first time I saw s
Bottle Cars
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In this activity, learners explore motion, energy, and electricity by constructing bottle cars that run on motors.
Forms of Carbon
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In this activity, educators can demonstrate how the nanoscale arrangement of atoms dramatically impacts a material’s macroscale behavior.
Geothermal Power Plant Model
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In this activity, learners make a model of a power plant that uses steam. Learners use simple materials like foil, a tin can, and a pot of water to model a geothermal power plant.
Pickle-oh!: Musical Pickle Instrument
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What's a Pickle-Oh? Two pieces of pickle on a stick are connected to a Pico Cricket (micro controller). When you slide the pickles apart the note changes.