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Inventive students design working electric motors

15 June 2020  |  Jill Lundberg  |  Posted in:

Two Year 8 students, Kirsty Tarran and Andrew Lunn have impressed their Science teacher with their understanding of how a motor works and, in particular, the way they went the extra mile to demonstrate this. Both students created impressive videos of their work which can be viewed here

The students were only just starting to study electricity with the other students in their two classes when the school shut. This gave them minimal opportunity for any practical work in what is, essentially, a practical topic. Despite that, both students managed to produce a working electric motor from a battery, a magnet and a few wires.

Mr Stalley, Science teacher, said: “This is a difficult practical exercise in school with the proper electric motor kits, so to achieve this with what they had available at home was exceptional. Also, there was no suggestion from me that they do this. It was totally their own initiative. Motors are such an integral part of modern life and are often hidden away, so an understanding of how they work is a fundamental part of understanding the world around us today.”

Kirsty and Andrew really enjoyed making their motors. Kirsty said: “I wanted to make my own motor to see how well it would work and it looked really cool being able to make a piece of wire move using electricity without touching it. I enjoyed finding all the materials to make it and constructing the wire circuit. The result was cool but I think we might have needed a lighter wire because it didn’t spin that fast. So that is the only thing I would have changed.”

Andrew said: “I decided to make the electric motor because I miss doing Science practicals in school. I had to make a few adjustments of the motor from the video to make it work from different objects around the house. I was particularly glad that I could do this task because we use motors around the house and in our daily lives and it was interesting find out how they worked and how to make one myself.”

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