Science motivates young minds

By Shamus Fitzgerald, Year 4, McDonnell Creek State School

MCDONNELL Creek State School students went to Bellenden Ker State School to participate in the She Flies Drone day.

Held on September 5, there were lots of other IT activities there also including 3D printing of our names, which we created on 3D drawing program Blender, makey/ makey, Ollies and some sparks, which we coded and programmed.

We had some other activities like filling up water balloons with paint so we could throw them at a tarp and make an abstract art piece.

We also did some pendulum painting to see how gravity, force, speed and momentum worked. These were great ways to experiment with physics through art.

Some people got to design their name on a 3D printing app and print them out on the 3D printer.

The Ollies were really fast so they had a DIY wooden ramp made out of plywood.

The She Flies drones were amazing. She Flies is a drone education organisation that goes to schools to teach about different types of drones.

We played with a jumping frog drone, which is a rolling drone with two rubber wheels. It’s called a jumping frog because it has a jumping mechanism at the back that uses springs and pistons.

The pistons push the springs down so they have a lot of pressure. When they release the energy the drone launches into the air.

When it lands it is usually upside down so it rolls itself back over using its wheels.

We used it as a free control drone then we started to learn how to program. Programming is fun; you connect the drones to the iPads to control them.

Before the session ended we got to race the drones and that was awesome.

The makey-makey was a kit that used a USB cord, the makey-makey (mother board) and a bunch of other cords that had little alligator clips on both ends.

You plugged the USB into the computer and the other into the makey-makey.

You then take one of the cords and put one end into the makey-makey and the other into an object that can conserve energy, such as fruit.

After that you get another cord and put it into the makeymakey and hold the other end with your hand and use your other hand to touch the fruit.

It will sense the energy going through and the makeymakey puts that input into the computer. The computer will make a sound and with this you can make a bunch of cords to go into the fruit, which makes cool tunes.

We also did a lot more activities, like making a design to save the reef because of global warming and coral bleaching.

This was an engineering activity. We were in groups of three and we needed to come up with a collaborative plan and build a model structure out of craft items.

Some people included shade structures and hydroelectricity pumps to vibrate the water to reflect the UV rays and help cool the water.

We had a really fun time and it was amazing to be around so many clever people who knew about technology and robotics.