GoldieBlox - You Build Your Toys

Everyone's played with toys before, but what about building your own? Step aside Legos, GoldieBlox is here to give you a taste of engineering with toys as the dessert. Besides being an awesome building set, GoldieBlox's goal is to "disrupt the pink aisle" and give young girls a chance to develop their engineering skills. Debbie Sterling, a mechanical engineering major from Stanford, wanted GoldieBlox to inspire the next generation of female engineers. Here are a couple of videos from GoldieBlox showcasing how much fun GoldieBlox can be:

GoldieBlox SuperBowl Ad

GoldieBlox & Rube Goldberg "Princess Machine"

Interested in purchasing a GoldieBlox product? Click here!

Design Challenges

Hey there, Tinkerers!

Ever wonder how satellites and spaceships are able to turn and change their paths in space? Check out this design challenge and see if you can do the same thing with magnets and a steel ball!

After you're done with the last one, here's another cool design challenge to check out. Try designing your own robotic arm to pick things up.

Let us know how it goes in the comments section! Did your design work? Or did you think of a better way of building it?  Maybe you used more than one magnet to steer your ball or different materials for your robotic arm. Try different things and see which design works best. Happy Tinkering!

Crazy Pool Vortex!

Check out this video related to fluid dynamics by Physics Girl on YouTube!

We highly recommend trying this experiment at home if you have your own pool!

Make Your Own Rock Candy

Got a sweet tooth? Then this is experiment for you!

NOTE: This experiment involves a stove and boiling water, so please make sure to take the proper precautions.

Materials:

• 3 cup of Sugar
• 1 cup of Water
• String or pipe cleaner
• Pencil or stick
• Paperclip
• Tall jar or glass
• Pot
• Wooden spoon
• Food coloring (Optional)
• Flavoring (Optional)

Procedure:

1. Twist or tie the string around the middle of the pencil and the paperclip to the other end of the string. Make sure the string is short enough that the paperclip is dangling above the bottom of the jar when the pencil is resting on top.
2. Wet the string, roll it in the sugar and set it aside.
3. Boil the water in the pot on the stove and when it starts to boil take it off the stove to settle.
4. Add in the sugar a half cup at a time, mixing continuously until sugar starts to collect at the bottom of the pot even when you stir.
5. Add in the food coloring and/or flavoring.
6. Pour the mixture into the jar until it is about an inch from the top.
7. Place the pencil over the jar with the string and paperclip hanging in the mixture.
8. Set the mixture somewhere where it will not be disturbed (but do not refrigerate) and wait.
9. In a day or so, you will start to see crystals start forming on the string. You can then leave the string in the mixture until the crystals have grown as big as you want or until they stop growing completely.
10. Remove the string from the glass, dry your crystal and enjoy!

What Happened:

The crystals formed on the string because because the sugar mixture was a super saturated solution. This means that there was more sugar dissolved in the hot water than room temperature (or cold) water can hold. When the water cooled down, the sugar could not stay dissolved and "came out" of the solution. The sugar then adhered the the string which acted as a "seed" and sugar crystals formed. 

For more information check out:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Rock-Candy

http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/rockcandy.php

Make your own Silly Putty!

Making your very own SILLY PUTTY!

Materials Needed:
-Elmer's Liquid Glue
-Sta-flo Concentrated Liquid Starch
-Food coloring

Procedure:
1.) Mix the food coloring into the liquid glue. Do this until the color is nice and even.
2.) Pour in the liquid starch.
3.) Stir and let it sit for about five minutes.
4.) Take the putty out of the bowl and knead in your hands for five to ten minutes.

***Aim for two parts glue and one part liquid starch***

And that's it!

Some more information about silly putty:
-it is a dilatant compound, or a gel that becomes solid under pressure
-more than 4,500 tons of silly putty have been sold since the 1950s
-the first silly putty was a mixture of silicone oil with boric acid

Make your own bicep!

Biomedical engineers try to understand how the body works so they can fix it with artificial parts when it gets damaged. One of the important types of body parts is muscle. When a muscle is stretched too much, or strained, it might need a biomedical device to get better. Sometimes a device can act like a muscle and help your strained muscles rest and heal faster. Try out this activity to make an artificial bicep!

Happy Holidays!

The Little Tinkerer will be on break until January. We hope you enjoy the holidays, and here are some cool engineering videos to check out while you wait!

Engineering at NASA 

3D printing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llgko_GpXbI

LEGO robots