Jr Infants Making Boats

First of all they practised sinking and floating, they used objects around the classroom like corks,pencils,toys etc. Then they talked about how to make a boat and what you need. They brought in Items from home like milk cartons and other recycling items. They all made boats out of the stuff they brought in and then tested them in groups. They loved this experiment!

Here is a picture of them testing their boats out on some water:

Investigating Pulleys - 4th class

4th Class investigated the use of pulleys. Our school caretaker made a wooden frame for our class to use as a test area. Each team of 3 used a 1kg bag of flour as a weight and measured the force required to lift using a single fixed pulley using a force meter. It was about 10 Newtons. They then used 2 pulleys, 1 fixed 1 movable to lift the same weight and measured the lift force required. It varied from about 3.5 to 5 Newtons for the teams. 

They then used their new knowledge of pulleys to make a 2 fixed-2 movable system suspended from a hook in the ceiling to assist our handyman in lifting loads up to the storage area in the roof. We attached a tray to it to allow him to load it with objects.