2018 - Term Three - Week Three - More Concrete and More Chemistry

Words by Luka Scott of "The Guinea Pigs"

 

Hi, my name is Luka.  I have been coming to Stem Club since it started (nearly 2 years now).

 

 

I mostly enjoy Stem Club - the bits I really like are the ones on the computers such as coding.  I have also taught a class and am planning another.  Teaching everyone is really fun.

 

This weekend on MakeRoom Wellington (.org).....

 

To start off we used the swirly spinning thing that when you pull the trigger starts to push serrated nails into the mould that we’d designed 168 hours previously (editors note - they used a drill to screw together the mould they’d designed the previous week).

 

 

 

Then we made hard rock liquid from 1,750ml of a silicate substance found on beaches, 500ml of crushed and dried lime/clay mix and 425ml of oxygen dihydroxide (editors note - they mixed a bucket of concrete using sand, cement and water).

 

Then we poured our hard rock liquid into our hard rock liquid thickener device and introduced colourful particles varying from opaque to translucent as augmentations to the aesthetic benefit. (editors note - they poured the concrete into the mould and added decorations)

 

 

Then as an extreme waste of our precious time we agitated the hard rock liquid by jostling the hard rock thickener device for an extremely unsatisfactory length of time - 600,000 milliseconds.  Luckily I refrained from this daunting and perturbing task for a short frame of time to refresh myself with a segment of apple. (editors note - they had to tap the sides of their pots to get the air bubbles out)

 

Then we talked about the structures created when two or more collections of sub-atomic particles are fused by molecular bonds.  We watched a movie on a website where a male adolescent and a bronze robot explain “the mysteries of life”.  (editors note: everyone learnt about molecular bonds and how some atoms want to form bonds and others don’t, this was done with the aid of a brainpop.com video).

 

 

Even though the computers remained sadly dormant there were fun bits.  I may have learnt something.  Don’t tell Nigel though.  (editors note - sheeez)