DIY Arc Reactor

My 15 year old daughter was invited to a surprise party with an Avengers Theme. She wasn't sure if others would dress up or not so 12 year old son and I came up with the perfect, understated costume - Tony Stark, wearing an Arc Reactor under normal clothes.

 Here's how we built the arc reactor...

Step 1: Create a circuit featuring power source (flattish 9 volt battery), blue light bulbs, and a swich.

It helps if you have clamps at the end of all the connecting wires. We recycled these from some other electronics kit/gadgets we had lying around.

Step 2: Squeeze the circuit bits into a large plastic lid. Attach with duct tape.

We placed the battery on the back (easy place to tape it) but this did make the whole assembly bulkier than was ideal.

Especially as my daughter didn't have a corresponding cavity in her chest.

I made a front cover from black card (copied loosely from the Tony Stark picture at the top). You could also use the more recent design.

The bulbs we had in the house weren't blue enough. We had one blue and one clear LED.

So we added some blue cellophane. I also ditched the black card and attached thick cardboard to both sides of the lid (having cut light holes with a scalpel).

Finally I attached some ribbon so the device could be worn around the neck (and under a black T-shirt).

This final picture is pretty lame. I should have taken a photo with the lights off. This was just a test shot. We ended up using a less-flat 9volt battery (although partly flat is good because full strength would probably shatter the LED bulbs) and a blacker T-shirt.

And the results?

Suffice to say, the birthday boy was surprised by his party! No-one else dressed up but at least my daughter didn't embarrass herself by wearing full Avengers gear!

Class activities - HSIE

Students examine:

-- the role of police (through a class visit by a police officer and follow-up role plays)

-- what would happen if there were no police (students draw a consequences chart)

-- how to contact police (homework: students prepare a news item where they practice describing their home address to a police officer on the phone, including their state, street address and nearest cross street).

-- why/when to contact police (discuss the difference between emergencies and non-urgent police matters; distinguish between the different phone numbers:
000 - Emergency
131 444 - General
1 800 333 000 - Crime Stoppers

Class activities - Science and technology

Activity: Students study the signage in the streetscape and discuss the purpose.

Indicator: Students recognise official signs and what they are communicating
(as distinct from advertising).

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Activity: Students design and make their own signs to warn of hazards or reinforce rules in the classroom.

Indicator: Student designs use clear and simple words and images.

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Activity: Students use PC drawing programs and/or recycled materials plus glue, tape, scissors, etc

Indicator: Students successfully create signs that are recognised by their peers.

Outcomes and indicators

The relevant outcomes from the Human Society and Its Environment K-6 Syllabus are:

Green text indicates quotes from the Syllabus.


Strand - Social Systems and Structures

Substrand - Roles, Rights and Responsibilities

Outcome SSS1.8

Identifies roles and responsibilities within families, schools and the local community, and determines ways in which they should interact with others.

Content Overview - Subject Matter

Students in Stage 1 will learn about:

• roles and responsibilities of people who work in services in the community, both paid and unpaid

Content Overview - Implications for Learning and Teaching

Students will have opportunities to:

• list the people who help them in the community adn describe what they do, the equipment they use and typical situations in which they perform their roles
• respect the process of rule making and rule enforcement

Strand - Change and Continuity

Substrand - Time and Change

Outcome CCS1.2

Identifies changes and continuities in the local community.

Content Overview - Subject Matter

Students in Stage 1 will learn about:

• technologies, both past and present (eg ways of accessing emergency services)
• changes, both past and present , caused by changing needs (eg types of emergency services and/or how they operate)

Teachers of Stage 1 students will:
* draw attention to change in technologies over time (eg ways of contacting police)
















Link to HSIE samples of work:

Workers in the Community.

Students learn about:

• the roles and responsibilities of people who work in services in the community
• interconnections between technologies, workers, users and the environment


Students will be able:

• list the people who help them in the community, describing what they do, the equipment they use and typical situations in which they perform their roles

Background Information

Police call box

The police call box was a service that was used by law enforcement in Europe. They were first used in 1928 in order to provide more effective service to the community. The Police box was a large blue box with a light on the top and contained a telephone which linked directly to the local police station. This enabled offices out in the community to report their whereabouts without having scheduled meeting times and the flashing light indicated to the officer on patrol that he was required to contact the police station.

The police box telephone was also accessible to the public in order to make a direct phone call to the police station in the case of an emergency. The police box also contained equipment for the police officers such as a stool, table and fire extinguishers.

The Police boxes were used between 1928 and 1960 to assist in communication with law enforcement however as technology developed the police boxes no longer became required when personal radios were introduced.

Police

The police service is there to protect the community in which we live. Police Stations are situated all around New South Wales and the country and there are various ways of contacting our Police Service. The NSW Police have a website which you are able to contact them through, various telephone numbers for different services which the police provide. However in relation to reporting a crime there are four ways in New South Wales in which you can do so. These include:

Attending your nearest police station
Police Assistance Number for non-urgent crimes number 131 444 where you can report and incident and have the police attend.
Crime Stoppers Number where you can report a crime
Standard emergency number which is 000 which can be called when there is a life threatening situation or critical emergency for prompt police assistance.

Through the use of modern technology contacting law enforcement has become more efficient and accessible through the use of public and mobile telephones.

New South Wales Government: NSW Police Force (2008, November). NSW Police Force. Retrived August 27, 2009, from http://www.nsw.gov.au

Metropolitan Police Service - History of the Metropolitan Police Service. Retrived 23 August 2009, from http://met.police.uk/history/policebox.htm

The artefact

Here is the almost-finished streetscape (without the police public call box so that you can see the old police station, stables, bicycle etc).















And here is the street scape with the lights on and the call box in situ.

Cells, batteries and circuits

Further research was conducted in relation to cells, batteries and circuits. A summary of relevant information obtained from the 2nd and 3rd editions of Teaching Primary Science Constructively is included below. It should be noted that some of these references use the term battery when clearly describing a cell. Where this has occurred, I have substituted the term cell.

Hubber and Kirkwood have used the following diagram to outline the way a dry cell functions (Skamp, K (Ed.), 2004, pp 131-135).

According to Hubber and Kirkwood:

• A dry cell has a metal casing which contains chemicals held in a paste.
• The metal casing has two separate parts known as terminals. One terminal is positive (+) and the other is negative (-).
• The positive terminal has a steel disc and a bump on it. It is connected to a carbon rod located in the middle of the battery.
• The negative terminal is a flat steel disc that connects to a zinc casing.
• A manganese dioxide and ammonium chloride paste separates the carbon rod from the zinc casing.
• A complex chemical reaction occurs inside the cell which causes a number of negatively charged electrons from the positive terminal to be deposited on the negative terminal. As a result, the positive terminal is left with a greater number of positively charged protons (ie, a positive charge). The negative terminal which has more negatively charged electrons is left with a negative charge.
• The chemical reaction inside an isolated cell reaches a state of equilibrium which leaves a small charge on each terminal. This occurs because "electrons have the same electric charge and so will repel each other. The chemical reaction can't keep moving electrons to places where an excess number of electrons already exist" (Skamp, K., 2004, p132).

The illustration below was obtained from www.odec.ca/.../2006/glaz6j2/battery_info.htm (accessed 04/09/2009). This is an "experimental" website containing basic battery information and activities. The illustration is more detailed than the diagram above and shows how the carbon rod does not connect to the negative terminal. It also indicates that terminals are also known as electrodes. Furthermore, it identifies a positive electrode as a cathode and a negative electrode as an anode. The illustration above also helps to explain how a circuit disturbs the equilibrium in a cell and allows the chemical reaction to continue. In the 3rd edition of Teaching Primary Science Constructively, Hubber and Kirkwood provide a good summary of how this occurs(Skamp, K (Ed.), 2008, pp 127 - 132):

• When a metal wire connects a cathode and anode, an (unbroken) pathway is formed.
• The pathway is called "an electric circuit, or more precisely, a closed circuit".
• If the pathway is broken, it is a “open circuit”.
• Electrons are part of all atoms that make up ALL substances, but generally they are not free to move away from the atoms they are attached to. In some substances, including metal, electrons are free to move (“free electrons”). Such substances are called “conductors”.
• Substances with electrons that are not free to move are called ‘insulators” (eg plastic).
• When a closed circuit is formed, an electric field is created which provides a pathway for the electrons to move from the negative terminal along the wire to the positive terminal. This movement of electrons disturbs the equilibrium and allows the chemical reaction to deposit more electrons on the negative terminal which in turn move along the pathway.

Hubber and Kirkwood provide a good summary of the following terms (Skamp, K (Ed), 2008, pp 130-131):

Voltage - "The voltage of the battery gives a measure of the strength of the electric field which pushes the free electrons around the closed circuit". As such, a 6-volt battery gives four times the push of a 1.5-volt battery on free electrons.

Electric current - the flow of electrons is called the electric current. The greater the voltage in a closed circuit, the greater the electric current.

Energy transformations and transfers in a torch- "The energy in the chemicals of the battery (chemical energy) is transformed into motion energy of the electrons. As they speed around the closed circuit they collide with the atoms in the filament in the globe thus transferring their motion energy to the atoms. This causes the atoms to vibrate. The vibrating atoms transform their motion energy into heat and light energy".

Electric current, resistance and power in the torch - "The size of the current is also affected by the ease with which the free electrons are able to move in the circuit. In the torch circuit, the filament does not provide an easy path for the free electrons as the wire of which it is made is much narrower than the other wires in the circuit".

Power - the term power "relates to the rate at which energy is transformed in the electric circuit. The unit of power is the Watt, where 1 watt represents 1 joule of energy being transformed per second". A 100W light bulb transforms 100 joules of electrical energy into light and heat energy every second the light globe is operating".

Hubber and Kirkwood provide a good summary of how energy, voltage, current, resistance and power are related (Skamp, K (Ed.), 2008, p131). This summary refers to a closed cell in a torch, but equally applies to other circuits. As mentioned they use the term battery for a cell. That said, this summary applies to both cells and batteries:

• The battery voltage determines the amount of energy given to each electron; the higher the voltage the greater the energy.
• The battery voltage and resistance in the circuit determine the size of the electric current; greater currents occur with larger battery voltages and/or less circuit resistances.
• The amount of energy transformed at the globe depends on the amount of resistance the globe has compared to the rest of the circuit. In a torch circuit, most of the free electrons' energy get transformed in the globe as it has most of the circuit resistance.
• The rate at which energy is transformed in the electric circuit is the power.

Hubber, P., & Kirkwood., V. (2008). Shining a light on electricity. In Skamp, K (Ed.), Teaching Primary Science Constructively (3rd Ed., pp125-154), South Melbourne, 2008.

Hubber, P., & Kirkwood., V. (2004). Shining a light on electricity. In Skamp, K (Ed.), Teaching Primary Science Constructively (2nd Ed., pp127-173), South Melbourne, 2004.