Re: [TCML] My Kid's School

[jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx]

my engineering teacher and i did a presentation for his daughters entire third grade.  in small groups of course. 

we explained what an electron was.  they already knew what the subatomic particles were which really surprised me.  so we explained how the electrons and protons determine charge and how charged particles interacted . we used a vandergraff generator to  re-enforced these ideas by using those small pie plates on the device.  ( if you put a bunch and the vandergraff they will fly off).  we also used string and smaller light weight spheres to show how different charges attract.  
after all that was done we explained how the larger the area of the sphere on top of the vandergraff the more charge we could store.  which we demonstrated by the good old kids in a chain to the water pipe trick.  then we explained why the last kid screamed louder than all the rest.  (they all wanted to do it again of course)
after this we let them shock each other and have some fun.

then came my tesla coil (after getting them all lined up on the other side of the room of course)
one of my smaller tesla coils 24 inch sparks sits on a table kind of thing.
 
I used the swing analogy to explain how it works. 
we did not really want to get in to electromagnetism,. so we lied and said that the tesla coil was like a vandergraff except we bounce the electrons back and forth in the coil instead of just building them up in the sphere.  they all wanted to know why the coil had a donut instead of a sphere. i forget what i said.
just like your friend gives you a little push on the swing causing you to go farther the tesla coil does the same thing causing electrons to get a little more  volts added to them.

after showing it with no ground i used my ground rod to draw arcs and such.  then we let a few of the kids hold a florescent tube (at a safe distance) and ohh ahh it glows.  they liked that.

that was pretty much it 
i was really surprised at how much the kids actually understood.  The teacher told us that they were talking about it for weeks and want us to come back next year. its too bad i am at college since i would totally do it again.  

cheers,
Jay Howson
jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Tim" <cuba_pete@xxxxxxx>
> All,
> 
> I have searched the threads a bit, but did not find anything relevant. I will be 
> taking my coil to my third grader's school on Wednesday, and was looking for 
> info I could put together in a small handout for their level of understanding.  
> It would need to capture an 8 or 9 year-old's interest (not that the coil won't 
> do enough of that!). Basically, they learn a little about science each week and 
> I am augmenting electricity and lightning.
> 
> I have the basic concepts of static electricity and magnetism in mind, but that 
> kind of went over the heads of some of my other daughter's seventh grade class 
> last year. The fluorescent tube went over well, so that's always cool.
> 
> To put your minds at ease, I have been at this a while and have safety 
> precautions in place. I am not looking for that kind of input (but, no doubt, we 
> cannot resist on emphasizing safety!).
> 
> I think this is my first input to the list, but have been reading it since 2005. 
> I have learned a lot over the years, so please accept this as my thank-you.
> 
> T.J.Wenzel
> _______________________________________________
> Tesla mailing list
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> http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla

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