Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Just a few leftovers from last term: first of all, I only received two acceptable projects for the interactive science contest that is ending this February.

One was an animation wheel that was made up of those moving elbow socket attachment toys that are used to make those roller coasters and walking robots.

This one though was made to look like a horizontal Ferris Wheel where the images that were supposed to show the animation were attached to the spokes radiating from the center of the wheel.

The parts had been super glued together to prevent students from salvaging the display for parts like a car left in a bad neighborhood without an alarm.

The wheel was also connected to a motor that is battery operated. When the battery is new though, the wheel turns too fast that most people cannot see the illusion of animation. The drawing, by the way, is of a stick figure taking one step, looped over and over again to give the semblance of walking.

My only regret - besides that fact that the structure is light enough to be raised over one’s head and thrown violently to the ground, for which I have no idea how well the bonding would hold; okay, that’s two regrets then – is that the student who created the project promised but failed to include a manual crank as an alternative, so that people could make the wheel rotate at their own speed.

I had to give special consideration, though, to a boy who would part with what was obviously a creative outlet of his childhood to ensure a passing grade.

The second one was just a modification or improvement of an existing submission from three terms ago, when my former co-teacher Mila required it of the students in her all-encompassing math subjects. This one is an application of the possibility of making a bubble larger than a human, that can actually envelope someone.

We start with a person standing on a slightly raised platform otherwise immersed in container filled with soap (in this case a kiddie pool). Also in the water is a hula hoop (with the platform in the center) attached to ropes suspended by pulleys to a bar above the person’s head parallel to the ground. The other ends of the ropes are in the person’s hand.

When the person pulls the ropes, the hoop will be lifted out of the soapy surface and surround the person on all sides. Of course for this to work there have to be several vertical edges from the hoop to the liquid to which the sides of the bubble will adhere. In this case, more suspended ropes from the hoop and dangling in the soap suffice.

The students had to change the original design, where the bar was only raised by one pole situated behind the person on the platform. They had to add another pole and locate them one either end of the bar. They also had to add a pulley, attaching it to three places on the hoop instead of two.

I was satisfied with their final submission.

And that’s all for today. I’ll reserve the tales of last year’s pleaders for a passing grade next time. Class dismissed.