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Out and About At Events

New Book Launch Professor Brian Cox and Professor Jeff Forshaw( both of whom have led a Scibar meeting in Knutsford have just launched a book written by the two of them - called " Why does E=mc^2". The book was launched at The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry on the 7th of July 2009. An interesting lecture by both professors was followed by the book signing - see pictures of Dave Thompson and scibarian Graham Barlow with the Profs.

KNUTSFORD SCIBAR - "SCIENCE FESTIVAL"

MANOR PARK SCHOOL & nursery

April 2009

After Dave Thompson visited MANOR PARK SCHOOL & nursery at their request, following an article in The Knutsford Guardian covering his work with schools, it was decided to put on a Science Festival for the whole school encompassing 3 year old to 11 year old children for a whole day to interest them in Science - A daunting task -

Volunteers were solicited mainly from the Knutsford Scibar and familiesand lectures were set up for each set of children covering , "Earth History & Tectonic Plates , where Graham Barlow using a theme of travellers in time, introduced to the children the concept of deep time . Practical demonstrations, involving a lava lamp and cardboard continental boundaries, introduced the children to the concept of plate tectonics and continental drift" , Ged Thompson covered "Forces for 4-6 year olds incorporating Pirate Galleon races across a paddling pool to Treasure island (see below Treasure Island with its creator Scibarian Roger Gittins), which itself incorporated a smoking volcano and dinosaurs." , Brian Thompson demonstrated "Magnetism - It's a kinda Magic featuring levitating magnets floating compasses and many other electrical and magnetic phenomena" , "Interesting objects in Space" were discussed by Scibarian Dave Thompson followed by the making and launching of Alka Seltzer powered rockets at many of the Space objects discussed in class" , " Demonstrations by STFC -Daresbury Labs making banana hammers and ice cream in class using Liquid Nitrogen at minus 196 degrees C" , The top classes had had a lecture from Scibarian Roger Gittins two weeks earlier about how to make pop bottle rockets which could carry a raw egg over 100 m and land it unbroken.The children then made rockets at home which were brought to school to be launched. I am pleased to report that of the five rockets launched containing raw eggs ALL FIVE SURVIVED the experience.

Classes were combined into composite classes of about 50 children and each class had one period during the day to visit a Science Fair that was set up in The Hall. The Science Fair consisted of number of stalls for the children to visit :- ... "A Planetarium from STFC- Daresbury Labs into whose dark igloo the children could crawl to see projections of the constellations of stars in the night sky".... "A Moon rocket stall, run by David & Christine Skinner, from which the children fired rockets at the moon, indoors, over the heads of the crowd ."... " A Visual Illusions stall incorporating Dragons that the children could make, whose eyes follow you as you move,(see below right) and a pair of parabolic mirrors together with a quiz about many other optical illusions" was run by Scibarian Kevin Griffiths ..."An Energy stall, managed by Roger Hall, incorporated working steam engines , steam powered boats and rubber powered boats chugging across a large paddling pool as well as a single coil electric motors and a hand built working steam powered boat made from just a coke can, two straws and a polystyrene chicken tray from Tescos.Oh and a small candle"... "A stall, run by Jon & Jane Cartmel,where the children could build paper aeroplanes and fly them to compete for model plane prizes whilst examining the properties of the Mobius Strip". The stall managers were all ably supported by our willing volunteers.

The end result was a very exciting day for the children( and the teachers and volunteers) which culminated in the children showing their parents round the whole Science Festival when they came to pick them up at the end of the school day.

To see a video of an exciting day condensed to 4 minutes in Media Player click here

To see a video of an exciting day condensed to 4 minutes in Real video click here. ...

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To watch Rocket video click here .... .................... ....To watch Exploding Custard video click here .... .......................

-----Some of the team with the Dragons.......

"SCIENCE EXPLOSION" Exhibition at the WORLD MUSEUM _LIVERPOOL

..........6th & 7th October 2008

Knutsford SciBAr recently attended The" Science Explosion" event run by the BA for Children at The World Museum Liverpool to launch the 2008 BA Festival 2008. Following on previous themes we took with us a rig designed and built by SciBArian Roger Gittins(middle below). The children first made and decorated their rocket nosecones to to fit to the rocket then fire their pop bottle rockets over the heads of the crowd in the Gallery at The World Museum. During the peak 5 or 6 hours Rockets were being fired by the children at just less than one / minute and 250 children had the pleasure of firing their own rocket. It's a bit scary standing there with the trigger string in your hand - see right. TV science guru Adam Hart-Davies (see left) showed a healthy interest in the SciBAr launcher

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Click here to see rocket launch

The SciBAr stall was manned over the weekend by volunteers(including Christine Skinner (right) & led by SciBArian David Skinner(left) who also arranged for the manning of a stall designed and built by SciBArian Chris Grice demonstrating various chaotic ,jointed and linked pendula and their strange behaviour. At the end the Knutsford SciBAr team were exhausted but exhilarated

"Daresbury Rocket Competition at ChesterRacecourse

In July 2008 Knutsford SciBAr entered several rockets made by various SciBArians into a competition to see which rocket could carry a RAW EGG the furthest without breaking the egg. The winner was Graham Barlow( shown second from left )with winning rocket). He achieved 160m with the wind against him. Graham is also famous (or infamous) for eating the noble " Joe Egg" who was the first ever surviving egg during testing. This ignominious act nearly got him thrown out of the team. The favourite before the event was Roger Gittins but unfortunately none of his eggs survived on the day. Distances of well over 200m had been achieved with a surviving egg in the testing phase. The SciBarians also took the Alka Seltzer Space rocket launcher to entertain children entering for the schools competition whilst they awaited their turn in the competition

.rocket test movie -click here

"Daresbury Festival " Exhibition at Daresbury Labs 2007

In 2007 Knutsford SciBAr ran a stall at Daresbury Festival to entertain the children and teach a little bit about what's out there in Space. The children had to make and decorate rockets based on 35mm film canisters . The rockets were then loaded with Alka Seltzer and taken to the Triple Launcher ( made by SciBarian Graham Barlow) and launched at images of various Space objects. If the rocket hit a target AND the child could identify the object he/she won a small prize. Nice weather ensured it was an enjoyable day for all.

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