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Shop Class; Monday, First Period [10/08].
Tuesday, October 8th, 2019 06:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
special_rabbit"Morning, everyone," Amaya grinned a little as she nodded, greeting the class, probably confirming the theory she'd had about what exactly her class today might actually look like, thanks to the very clear warning she'd gotten about the whole thing from last night's movie class. So she was feeling particularly proud of herself for being able to switch to a different project than what she'd originally planned. "I'm sure some of you are feeling a bit off of your usual selves today, which means it's probably not a good idea to have you all handing hot molten metals if your motor functions are in need of some fine tuning calibrations. So we're going to put off the project that we'll be using our whittled wood figures for a few weeks--which means if you're not happy with what you made last week, you've got the chance to come up with something else, just let me know if you need materials or shop time, but the nice thing about whittling is you can do it pretty much anywhere.
"Now, on to today! All this switching around got me thinking about alternating currents," yes, she thought that was hilarious, "and I'm sure most of you know what that means: electricity! Now, one of the tricks about a school as diverse as this is that we've got people from all sorts of places here, so electricity might be old hat for some of you and bright and shiny and new for some of the others, but I think this project is a good one all across the board. It was inspired by one of last years's school trips, which makes it a good lead in to our school trip coming up...as well as potentially useful with the Fandom winters coming up. They can be brutal, and there's going to probably be at least one time where the power goes out, but you'll all be set and ready with the thermoelectric generators we'll be building out of just a few parts, a tub of water, and some candles.
"What we're essentially doing, then," Amaya continued with her explainion, "is creating energy based on the temperature difference between the heat from candle flame and the cool water in the small tubs we'll be using. This should be powerful enough to charge a phone or perhaps a few other small but useful devices in an emergency. And I'm sure some of you could easily modify this to create more power to help energize something with a bit more oomph, too."
So the students would find a handout of instructions on their workstations as well as the materials they needed, as Amaya led them through the steps: starting with a handful of thermoelectric plates, which would generate electricity as it heated up one side while cooling down the other, and sticking them to the bottom of a container for the cold water. They'd be using bread tins, because they really did work pretty well, using thermoconductive glue and then saudering the black and red wires that stick out from the plates together, closing the circuit, and protecting the wires from creating a short circuit against the metal pan with some electrical tape. Then on to hooking up a voltage regulator to stabilize the energy passing through the plates, which would also serve as the plug-in point for their devices. They'd be mounting it over the tin with a strip of aluminium to keep it out of the water. Place the strip, hook up the wires to the regulator, another bit of aluminium over the plates, and onto the stand! With more aluminium!
And now to test it out! Line up the candles underneath, pour some cold water into the tin, let the thing get juiced up, and give it a try!
"Now, as the water warms up, it'll need to be refreshed, because the difference in temperature is key to what creates the power," Amaya offered as she finished up the demonstration. "Using snow or ice is actually more effective because of this...so next blizzard that sweeps in and knocks out the power, the lot of you should be all set! And if you make a big enough one, I'll bet it would be pretty snowman proof, too!"
BECAUSE THAT WAS A THING.
"So, let me know if there's any questions, and, if not, let's get to work!"
"Now, on to today! All this switching around got me thinking about alternating currents," yes, she thought that was hilarious, "and I'm sure most of you know what that means: electricity! Now, one of the tricks about a school as diverse as this is that we've got people from all sorts of places here, so electricity might be old hat for some of you and bright and shiny and new for some of the others, but I think this project is a good one all across the board. It was inspired by one of last years's school trips, which makes it a good lead in to our school trip coming up...as well as potentially useful with the Fandom winters coming up. They can be brutal, and there's going to probably be at least one time where the power goes out, but you'll all be set and ready with the thermoelectric generators we'll be building out of just a few parts, a tub of water, and some candles.
"What we're essentially doing, then," Amaya continued with her explainion, "is creating energy based on the temperature difference between the heat from candle flame and the cool water in the small tubs we'll be using. This should be powerful enough to charge a phone or perhaps a few other small but useful devices in an emergency. And I'm sure some of you could easily modify this to create more power to help energize something with a bit more oomph, too."
So the students would find a handout of instructions on their workstations as well as the materials they needed, as Amaya led them through the steps: starting with a handful of thermoelectric plates, which would generate electricity as it heated up one side while cooling down the other, and sticking them to the bottom of a container for the cold water. They'd be using bread tins, because they really did work pretty well, using thermoconductive glue and then saudering the black and red wires that stick out from the plates together, closing the circuit, and protecting the wires from creating a short circuit against the metal pan with some electrical tape. Then on to hooking up a voltage regulator to stabilize the energy passing through the plates, which would also serve as the plug-in point for their devices. They'd be mounting it over the tin with a strip of aluminium to keep it out of the water. Place the strip, hook up the wires to the regulator, another bit of aluminium over the plates, and onto the stand! With more aluminium!
And now to test it out! Line up the candles underneath, pour some cold water into the tin, let the thing get juiced up, and give it a try!
"Now, as the water warms up, it'll need to be refreshed, because the difference in temperature is key to what creates the power," Amaya offered as she finished up the demonstration. "Using snow or ice is actually more effective because of this...so next blizzard that sweeps in and knocks out the power, the lot of you should be all set! And if you make a big enough one, I'll bet it would be pretty snowman proof, too!"
BECAUSE THAT WAS A THING.
"So, let me know if there's any questions, and, if not, let's get to work!"