STEM GROUP – October 2023
The October event, scheduled for the 14th October has been Cancelled. This will allow me some time to stock take resources, and prepare properly for future sessions. It will also allow the library time to reach out and get some more help in to run sessions.
I was asked about the Horrible science kit (see below). This kit has about ½ of what is needed, the other ½ needs to be sourced. I need too work out what is practical to do during a session and also source these items accordingly. I can't get or buy everything.
Making a Sodium Chloride Solution attempt 3 part 2
So following on from the previous video, this is now part 2.
Making 100ml of 0.5 M Sodium Chloride.
Having measured out the Sodium Chloride, I now add this to the volumetric flask and then add water to the 100ml line. This was done in stages so that small amounts of water were added with a pipette to ensure the exact amount is added with less risk of going over the 100ml line.
I hope this video at least demonstrates I can undertake making up solutions.
Tantalising sign of possible life on faraway world
BBC News. This is an interesting discovery but does warrant further investigation, so the key molecule found here appear to be:
I have put in the –'s so it is easier to read, other molecules that appear to have been found are Methane (CH_4) , both of which are linked to life in some way, clearly Methane also very common here on Earth.
We have been discussing this on the Fediverse, so hence the agreement about further investigation, but also we seem to have been here before with finding Phosphine on Venus, which had the press having pictures of flying aliens.
We probably won't find complex life, but even simple Organic molecules and other molecules that are the building blocks of amino acids could suggest potential for life.
We did find Ammonia on Pluto for example.
See what happens when the studies come out. In the meantime there is a more detailed article from metro here and a paper here
Trojans Rookie camp week 2 reminder
**Rookie camp 2 **
Excellent rookie camp today with a real mixture of drills and activities. I
- Date: Sunday 17th September 2023.
- Time: 10:00 to 13:00
- Location: Foxhole Community Centre Field, Bellfield Road, Paignton
- Info : See website and social media
Links
Tags
#Trojans,#Football,#Training,#TorbayTrojans,#AlwaysTrojan
Odd Thunar behaviour
I took about 145 photos at the American Football rookie camp today. Scrolling through these, some of the photo thumbnails are clearly not of American football, some are clearly of a rugby game.
The Rugby game in Question is actually between Paignton vets vs Chobham, a game that is played in February. This game was a few years ago.
For some reason Thunar is displaying some thumbnails as photos taken a few years ago. If I open one of these, then the photo is the photo taken today 10/9/2023. The file list also confirms this, as does viewing the properties.
I am not sure what is going on. All I can think of is, that the filenames are the same, for some reason Thunar has the old photo in a cache, which it is displaying instead of the actual photo that I took.
Just seems odd behaviour, this is Thunar under Debian 11.
Trojans Rookie camp week 2
**Rookie camp 2 **
Excellent rookie camp today with a real mixture of drills and activities. I
- Date: Sunday 17th September 2023.
- Time: 10:00 to 13:00
- Location: Foxhole Community Centre Field, Bellfield Road, Paignton
- Info : See website and social media
Links
Tags
#Trojans,#Football,#Training,#TorbayTrojans,#AlwaysTrojan
Trojans Recruitment day Write up
**Rookie camp 1 **
Excellent rookie camp today with a real mixture of drills and activities. I managed to take about 145 photos, so these have been shared internally with the team, so should be appearing on the various social media channels.
We started with a warm up, then progressed to the usual footwork drills, before moving on to a tackle practice using bags and then donuts.
After this we broke off to do combine drills, then finally did some work on running / passing skills and then some kicking.
More next week and we will have more rookies joining us.
Next rookie camp
- Date: Sunday 17th September 2023.
- Time: 10:00 to 13:00
- Location: Foxhole Community Centre Field, Bellfield Road, Paignton
- Info : See website and social media
Links
Team Status
We are rebuilding the team, looking for players, coaches and support personnel. Please see team social media for information.
Please join us on this journey.
Tags
#Trojans,#Football,#Training,#TorbayTrojans,
#AlwaysTrojan
Making a Sodium Chloride Solution attempt 3
So further to my previous video, where I measure out the required amount of Sodium Chloride, this video illustrates mixing the solution in a 100ml volumetric flask
Two parts to this video
- Measuring Sodium Chloride
- Making the actual solution
Tags
#Science,#Chemistry,#Molar,#Solutions.#HowTo,#Demonstration
September STEM Group Write up
The September STEM group was fairly quiet. I had one attendee at first and we attempted the planned experiments. These were
1 Add Bicarbonate of Soda to vinegar in a zip lock back, to demonstrate air pressure
2 Repeat but put holes near the top of the zip lock bag, this releases the CO_2 pressure and should produce an endothermic cooling.
In both cases the expected reaction took place. I don't think there was enough ingredients for the size of bag being used.
This is exactly why I need more help, so that I have someone who can help suggest ideas and improvements to experiments.
We also undertook some other experiments including adding Magnesium Ribbon to Vinegar and also added some to Copper Sulfate to demonstrate displacement. This needs to be repeated with better explanation however.
I have also made up a new solution of 0.5 M Citric acid at 100ml volume. This can be used for later sessions.
I also carried out an experiment to compare the reactions of antacid Rennie, in both CItric Acid Solution and White Vinegar. The videos for these are linked below.
I tried to use a Lime and some of the copper / zinc sheets I sent for to make a battery again this needs further experimentation and investigation(s).
There was a 2nd attendee in the afternoon, however all we could do is a basic acid / alkali experiment due to lack of resources.
