gwdeveloper 275 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Just wanted to let you guys know that my daughter took 1st place for the 3rd grade at her school's science fair. She's going to the regional event on March 29th. We're pretty excited. Now she's pretty sure she wants to be rich and a scientist. haha Her project was (and this was totally her idea) to test magnifying glasses on solar panels to see if she could make more power. I taught her how to solder and use wikipedia. She did all of her wire stripping, soldering, data collecting and graphs. Together, we built 2 Solar FLED engines so she could have a working display. Unfortunately, her hypothesis didn't work out for her but mostly due to the experimentation. Using the magnifying glasses, in her experiments, made less power. I didn't want to crash her brain too much so we didn't get into focal lengths of the lenses as this was more about her experiment being done her way. Now, we've got some time to work on her robot again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
turd 31 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Congratulation guys! :clap: Those FLED engines are fun to make Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Congratulations to you both! Good for her to do all that stuff. Hands on... the right way to learn. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cde 334 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 You should have told her about the focal length. Mainly by showing her how the focal length Is important for setting things on fire or properly reading things. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I learned about focal length one hot, summer day. I used that knowledge to etch my name in my leather baseball glove and in the few dozen smoldering carcasses of any poor ants that came near my beam of death! Focal length is awesome! :angel: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gwdeveloper 275 Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Haha, yep. Magnifying glasses are still one of my favorite toys tools. Unfortunately, here in TX, we have burn bans all the time here so I don't really want her playing like that in the backyard. One little oops... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pine 140 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Congratulations! Like father like daughter Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I gave my 3 month old a Fraunchpad the other day and he tried to eat it. He'll get there, but maybe it's a bit soon... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SugarAddict 227 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 So your next project should include collimating lenses and a laser Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gwdeveloper 275 Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 Ha, already on it. Last week we were making our own collimators so we could see the fish in the pond. Diy lasers? Gotta check into that for sure. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SugarAddict 227 Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 You've read Sam's laser faq, RIGHT?!?! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fe2o3Fish 33 Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Haha, yep. Magnifying glasses are still one of my favorite toys tools. Unfortunately, here in TX, we have burn bans all the time here so I don't really want her playing like that in the backyard. One little oops... Bring her up here, north of Dallas especially near Lake Texoma, as we've had plenty of rain of late, the ground's fairly wet, and we don't have a burn ban in place... until summer, probably. :-) I'll dig out my 14" Fresnel lense and we can really get cooking! -Rusty- Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gwdeveloper 275 Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Oh man, my Dad used to take me fishing at Lake Texoma. We'll definitely need to head up that way this summer. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nuetron 64 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 [speaking of rain...] How cold has your winter been? Over here in east TX (don't worry, my family moved from the D/FW area) we have hardly had a winter at all, just lots of rain and a couple frosts. I guess to make up for all the rain we didn't get last year... So many clouds that it was useless to even try to use the 4-inch magnifying glass I got from a projection TV... It's so wet here that our hill is still draining... PS: Have you ever seen a fist-sized ball of fire-ants floating on a pond? [/speaking of rain...] Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fe2o3Fish 33 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Oh man, my Dad used to take me fishing at Lake Texoma. We'll definitely need to head up that way this summer. Well, just gimme a holler. There's a little fishing pier on the Texas side, in Eisenhower State Park, that the wife likes to fish from. It's lighted so you don't have to pack up at sunset. And you don't need a license to fish in a Texas state park! -Rusty- Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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