This is a Tornado Chamber I built for one of our Science Saturday workshops. Air enters the box through the two slits in the side and exits through the hole in the top. The positioning of the slits sets up a clockwise vortex inside the box (the rotation of the air in the box should be in the same direction as the blades of the fan). The window is made of some extra lamination film and allows a view into the box while still keeping air out. When the dry ice is put in the cup of hot water, it creates fog which subsequently follows the circular path of the air, thus creating the tornado.
Air pressure. We experience it every day. For those of us living around sea level, we must endure 14.9 pounds pushing down on every square inch of our bodies. Of course, since the air is also pushing in every other direction, we don’t feel it at all.
Due to the fact that we experience air pressure on a daily basis, we at Thematic Attic decided it would be an excellent topic to cover in one of our Science Saturday workshops, specifically using hover craft.
One of the demonstrations that I came up with for the workshop was a paper plate hovercraft. I built it out of a large 12 volt computer fan that was placed over a hole in a paper plate. I happened to have a generic transformer that could deliver 12 volts and so, with a little soldering, I had a way to power the fan indefinately. Voila! A Hover Craft
In retrospect, I would consider going with a smaller fan since this one seemed to lose a lot of air straight up through the fan. However, it was able to force and keep enough air under the plate to lift the edges and allow it to float across the table.
In researching this project I saw several articles on how to make a ride-able hover craft out of some plywood and a leaf blower. Coincidentally enough, this showed up in my living room a couple days later…
Thematic Attic has been having all sorts of summer activities this year, including the Artist Workshop Series where kids learn about great artists in history and do fun activities. One of the artists they learned about was Walt Disney.
For an activity, they followed in Disney’s footsteps and designed a theme park. I got to do the practice one. It’s an adventure theme park called Scottland.
The mountains and all 3D details were made out of salt dough.
Other materials include thread, stripped bell wire, toothpicks, and acrylic paints.
The masts of the ship were made from short pieces of stripped 24 gauge wire
The train and ski lift
Rafts to and from the island
The mountains were made of crumpled packing paper with a thin layer of dough over it.
I’ve discovered that salt dough has a very low “resolution,” meaning that the amount of detail you can mold into it is rather low. However, it’s extremely easy to make, non-toxic, and fun to work with. When you are trying to make a smooth surface, especially where two pieces of dough meet, it helps to push the dough around with a wet paint brush. Painting is also rather easy, though it helps to dilute the paint with a small amount of water so that it fills in the surface of the dough completely.
My recipe for salt dough:
1 cup salt
2 cups flour
3/4 cup water
Mix the salt and flour in the bowl, then add the water and mix until smooth. Extra flour or water may be needed to get the right consistency.
The dough we made for the workshop lasted in a sealed container for a week and may have lasted more had we tried to store it longer.
We redid the seasonal section at The Thematic Attic and part of that included an Edgar Allan Poe themed vignette.
It is mostly black and white with a few small colors interspersed and has an old typewriter, a picture of Lenore, a Raven, some greco-roman sculptures and an empty picture frame. The frame hangs above the desk and will later contain a silhouette of Poe and a raven. The silhouette will be placed back a little from the frame, thus allowing it to appear to move around in the frame as you move around it.
