Flag Day

I am working with Bulwell Academy at the moment to develop a Year 8 project (Age 12-13) combining construction and textile skills
My idea for a flag project came as a way of publicising the new Academy by getting the best 10 students work made full size as 3 Metre tall flags suitable for indoor and outdoor promotion, direct developments of their initial 3 "wire and paper" designs, then this scale concrete and fabric version shown here
The design uses two disposable pudding bowls to make the mould and mould support to cast the concrete base. An M4 bolt with washers is embedded in the concrete, forming a post to screw on the nylon tubing (internally reinforced with a bamboo skewer so it bends most at the top) and attach the sewn flag
The trickiest bit was working out how to attach the flag to the pole, it is a twist of soft wire holding a keyring 'ring' on the mast. Tabs on the sail tie the sail to the mast, and create the necessary tension to give the sail shape, and the final version looks pretty good, if only about 500mm high
Now the practical has been 'sorted' for the most part, the project is passed back to the Teachers to work out how and in what order they wish to run the project for the 200+ students they have

Often new ideas are adaptations of existing ones, but made possible because an assessment is made before starting of the number of students, materials, time and staff skills able to be brought to the project. A good project is one able to be made by a busy teacher with a large number of students per week, not a consultant tinkering in their kitchen!
I am hoping that this project runs before Easter and I can post a picture of the final 200 flags flapping in the breeze ...

Simply Balanced

I am presently developing a micro line following robot PCB, Have just produced a new use for a 555 timer chip, am redesigning a project from my first years teaching some (censored) years ago, and have started wondering how small you can make a programmable vehicle that can be soldered by children with normal levels of concentration....
But this is my latest project.. And there are no wires, chips, smart materials or anything else in sight.. Its called the Wobbler, and is a counterbalancing toy that 'balances' on two wheels, takes minutes to make and only needs a low level of skill with scissors, a screwdriver and any old laminator to make for less than 50p... But with a little planning you can get loads of educational goodness from it..
Science can use it to investigate leverage, Technology to investigate nuts, bolts and different fastenings, maths to investigate weight and balance, or as a filler activity for a group, themed for Christmas or another holiday. It will be available from www.nelc.net for Free as a presentation, Assembly films, three worksheets and exemplar photos

I have started to call my project ideas 80% projects, this means that if the educator doesn't wish to do any self development or investigation to adapt the project to their students, there is 80% of the project in the packs I produce, but if you use it as a core, something to build your own ideas and themes around, it could be as little as 30% of a quick project... and it will be a much better project than one run with just my, (in my opinion, highly professional,) teaching materials...