» Earthquake Simulator
An off-center weight is attached to a drill. The drill
is attached to a piece of wood suspended in a box.
When the drill turns the off-center weight, the wood
platforms shakes, simulating an earthquake.
Here’s a manually controlled Shaker Table:
makezine.com/go/earthquake (PDF), and others
here: makezine.com/go/shaker_tables.
express their creativity and explore the physics of
energy, all without even knowing it!
makezine.com/go/roller_coaster
Steve Davee, Portland, Ore.
» Portable Emergency Shelter
My 5th-grade math students created an inexpensive,
portable emergency shelter, using three sheets of
4'× 8' plastic corrugated plastic. They decided to
design with preschoolers in mind, so they measured
and averaged the volumes of our youngest students.
After initial brainstorming and designs in their
Maker’s Notebooks, they made scale models of
shelters (and preschoolers) out of paper to test and
refine their ideas. Once they agreed on a final design,
they constructed a shelter that was a successful
blend of efficiency, comfort, portability, and utility.
Richard Delwiche, San Francisco, Calif.
» pH Indicator
Rather than using expensive and toxic solutions,
I prefer to have students make their own. The
simplest and most widely known is cabbage juice,
obtained by either squeezing or boiling.
Another awesome indicator is turmeric. I put
powdered turmeric in alcohol, then soak up the
yellow solution into coffee filter paper.
After it dries, strips of this paper can be used to
indicate the presence of a base. I hold it over the
mouth of an ammonia bottle to show that even the
vapors turn it to a vivid red.
makezine.com/go/ph (PDF)
» Membrane Aerophones
These are musical instruments that sound a little
like oboes. You blow into a straw to pressurize a
small chamber made from a film canister covered
with a membrane. As air pushes up the membrane it
escapes the chamber through a PVC pipe. The tube
has finger holes that can be covered like a recorder
to play a scale. makezine.com/go/aerophone (PDF)
» Oil Drop Photometer
We have also made simple and elegant “oil drop
photometers.” makezine.com/go/photometer
Jane Gerughty, Pacifica, Calif.
» Plastic Projects
I like to shrink #6 plastic fast-food containers.
Students draw something science-related with
Sharpies, punch holes for hanging, and then shrink
the science art in a toaster oven.
I do a mini unit on the history and use of plastics
and environmental concerns. I show them a small
plastic preform for a water bottle and a large preform for a larger soda bottle to emphasize change
of density and relate it to mass.
» Owl Pellet Dissections
I link this lesson to food chains. I have students identify the bones and re-create skeletons [of the animals
the owl ate]. makezine.com/go/owl_pellets (PDF)
» Strawberry DNA
Another favorite is DNA extraction from strawberries.
It’s a nice way to see DNA. makezine.com/go/dna
Gever Tulley, Montara, Calif.
» Wind-Up Juice-Bottle Boats
Every kid gets two empty 15-ounce juice bottles, a
couple of rubber bands, and some sculpture wire.
At first it seems impossible, but then it’s clear that
the possibilities are endless.
Aero- and hydrodynamics are explored, and
friction and tension are diagnosed and managed.
makezine.com/go/bottle_boat
» Deconstruct and Reanimate
Obsolete storage devices such as cassette tapes
and floppy drives are dismantled and the parts are
probed with AA batteries to see what happens.
Electromechanical principles are discovered, and
basic concepts of circuits and polarity are explored.
» Potential Energy
A few hex nuts, some string, and a couple of coat
hangers are all that’s needed to play with potential
energy. Wire sculptures are animated with falling
weights and unspooling line. Simple mechanical
linkages are invented and refined, and a deeper
understanding of gravity may be revealed.
Alicia Hardy, Oakland, Calif.
» Roller Coaster Design Project
Using inexpensive materials, you take foam pipe
insulation and cut it in half, making two sets of
semicircular tracks. All you need is a marble to
begin an exciting challenge.
You can create distance challenges or have
students try to get the marble into a cup several
meters away. You can even have a “make the
biggest loop-de-loop” contest. Students get to
78 Make: Volume 20
