Tuesday 25 September 2018

Rube-Goldberg Motivation

Here are some really neat videos to give ideas about how to build a Rube-Goldberg machine:

A longer video showcasing a number of more complicated machines:
Steven Price ("Sprice") has developed a number of well-done Rube-Goldberg machines. His YouTube channel can be found here:
This is a short example that has a lot of ideas that are easy for students to create with everyday objects:

Organizing an Astronaut's Life

Astronauts need to be very wise in their use of time when in space. Crews on earth plan the daily tasks that every astronaut must complete every day, in five-minute intervals. Times for meals, exercise, sleep and free-time are all planned. This article explains some of the things that must be considered when scheduling an astronaut's day:

In his book "Endurance", astronaut Scott Kelly talks about the challenges of returning to daily life on earth, after living about the ISS for a year, because he was suddenly responsible for organizing his own time.

Tuesday 18 September 2018

Chris Hadfield - An Astronaut's Guide to Life in Space Videos

Canadian Chris Hadfield was a NASA astronaut who filmed numerous videos while he was living on the International Space Station in 2013. Here are a selection:

For more videos, go to Chris Hadfield's website:

Balancing Apples

Fall is a time I look forward to because fresh Ontario apples become readily available!

Sometimes it is fun to do other things with apples, rather that just eat them. Here's an activity to try that uses paper apples to do a cool "trick":

Thursday 13 September 2018

Paper Helicopters

Here are some great instructions for making a paper helicopter and interesting questions to explore once it is made:

More About Rockets

What it is like to ride in the Soyuz rocket into orbit, as told by Chris Hadfield:

How fins can help a model rocket:
Landing of a Soyuz capsule:

Tuesday 11 September 2018

Paper Rocket Areodynamics

How can a simple paper rocket be created? How can the design be changed to make the rocket fly farther and with more stability?

Check out these interesting links!

Watch a Soyuz rocket launch:


Simple instructional video of how to build a paper rocket:
Background information: