The Workshop

Lamp Circuits

Science workshop is a place to test ideas, perform experiments and make discoveries. To prove many scientific facts you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment. In, fact everything you need for a basic workshop can be found around your home or school. Read through these pages, and then use your imagination to add to your “home laboratory”. Make sure that you are aware of the relevant safety rules, and look after the environment. A science experiment is an activity that involves the use of basic rules to test a hypothesis. A qualitative approach involves observation. A quantitative approach involves measurement. Remember, one of they keys to being a creative scientist is to keep experimenting. This means experimenting with equipment to give you the most accurate results as well as experimenting with ideas. In this way you will build up your workshop as you go along.

Making the models
Before you begin, read through all the steps. Then make a list of the things you need and collect them together. Next, think about the project so that you have a clear idea of what you are about to do. Finally, take your time in putting the pieces together. You will find that your projects work best if you wait while glue or paint dries. If something goes wrong, retrace your step. And, if you can’t fix it, start over again. Every scientist makes mistakes, but the best ones know when to begin again!

General Tips
They are at least two parts to every experiment:
Experimenting with materials and testing a science “fact”. If you don’t have all the materials, experiment with others instead. For example, if you can’t find any  polystyrene, use cardboard or balsa wood instead. Once you’ve finished experimenting, read your notes thoroughly and think about what happened evaluating your measurements and observations. What conclusions can you draw from your result?

Safety Warnings
Make sure that an adult knows that you are doing at all times. Cutting and bending a coat-hanger can be dangerous. Ask an adult to do this for you. In the experiments that use electricity, always use a battery of 1.5 volts. Always make sure your hands are dry. Water and electricity do not mix. Never use mains electricity. Always be careful with scissors. If you spill any water, wipe it up right away. Slippery surface are dangerous. Clean up your workshop when you finish!

Experimenting
Always conduct a “fair test”. This means changing one thing at a time foe each stage of an experiment. In this way you can always tell which change caused a different result. As you go long, record what you see and compare it to what you thought would happen. Ask questions such as “why?”, “how?” and “what if?”. Then test your model and write down the answer.