Techniquest

As part of the module the inquiring mind:creative approaches I was required to attend Techniquest in Cardiff and comment on an exhibit I found to be the most interesting. Despite not being the most visual or exiting of exhibits having bottle rockets and hot air balloons to compete with, I found 'Orbits' to be educational and interesting as well as engaging and enjoyable.

Orbits requires you to roll a ball on to a curved table and watch as it rotates two holes in the centre of the table until it disappears down one of them. The exhibit visualises what occurs to a planet when it is in the orbit of a star or black hole. The surface of the table represents the gravitational pull and the two holes with in the table represent the black hole or star. As the ball gets closer to the hole, it feels a stronger pull and gets sucked in to the whole. This is because the ball loses energy as it spins around the table and it's orbit gets lower and lower until it drops in to a hole. It is a great demonstration of how our planet orbits the sun especially for visual kinaesthetic learners. Fortunately the earth does not lose energy as it orbits in a vacuum and thus continues to orbit the sun.

Upon experiencing the exhibits I felt it was suitable and enjoyable for any age group especially having taken a three year old boy with me who thoroughly enjoyed throwing the ball on the the table and watching it spin. However with hindsight I feel the exhibit 'Orbits' may be more relevant to children in key stage 2 (7-11 year olds) and key stage 3 (11-14) as it directly associated with 'the sustainable Earth' element of the science programme with in the national curriculum. 'The sustainable Earth' range supplies pupils with a knowledge and understanding of the earth,other planets and it's atmosphere (Welsh Assembly Government,2009).

'Orbits' helps to develop communication and thinking skills through requiring children to ask questions about the exhibit and explore the possible reasons for the ball behaving the way it does on the table with a friend,adult or peer. Both communication and thinking skills are a part of the skills frame work of the national curriculum(Welsh Assembly Government,2009).

Orbits can also help motor skill development, inter personal skills and literacy. The exhibit promotes motor skills as it involves being actively engaged in the learning and throwing the ball at an angle. Inter personal skills are evolved through sharing the exhibit with others and literacy through reading the explanation which is provided with each exhibit to understand the science theory behind it.

'Orbits' teaches specific knowledge about gravitational pulls and how the earth orbits the sun continuously. Because The Earth orbits around one star the orbit is stable,meaning that slight disturbances such as meteorites don't have an effect on the long term orbit of the Earth. However if the Earth was orbiting around two stars, the orbit would be much easier to change from an oval to an “8” shape as can be seen in the 'Orbits' exhibit. An orbit with two stars is unpredictable and chaotic while an orbit with one star is stable.

I definitely feel my physics subject knowledge has expanded as despite understanding the gravitational pull of orbits, I did not know the behaviour of an orbit with two stars or that an orbit with two stars could even exist!

I would improve the exhibit by providing more information on what is taking place on the information card, however on the whole I found it to be very interesting and would definitely go again!

"Orbits"

References:

The Welsh Assembly  Government (2009) [online] available from http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/?lang=en [accessed on 11/4/14]