This week our STEM Club session centred around investigating helicopter spinners and altering variables in an experiment,
The pupils were given a template for a simple paper spinner designed to reflect the action of helicopter rotor blades. Once they had mastered cutting and folding this initial template and tested it, they were able to change the variables and test the efficiency of the spin. The pupils had a choice of different size templates to see whether a smaller spinner or a larger spinner would spin best. They also had a choice of different types of paper and card to use for their templates. Finally they added weight to their spinner by varying the number of paper clips they added to the spinner to see if this affected the quality of spin.
All of the pupils were really engaged with the task and were quite creative in different designs that they wanted to try. There was lots of great scientific discussion about the effect of forces and the pupils enjoyed modifying their designs to try and improve them.
