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Technology Page ·   This new 'Technology Page' contains classroom ideas, project examples, Questions and Answers, etc. ·   Also a Question and Answer page will soon be operating in case teachers have specific concerns. ·   Please if you have a question or two. Questions and Answers Question 1: Do I need to register my students for the Judging Day? Answer 1: We do ask that teachers entering students in the Tech Challenge send to the TSTS Director a list of names by August 4th Hobart and Aug 8th Launceston of those students expected to enter - is the best way for sending names. This is so we can have participation certificates printed before the day and ensure we have sufficient judges for the number of entrants. Only those who actually turn up for judging will be charged an entry fee. Other students may still enter but will only receive a hand-written certificate. Students will be given an “order of arrival number” for the judging order. Some waiting is to be expected, but being National Science Week, there will be exhibits of interest in the nearby area for them to observe whilst waiting.   Question 2: Do the students need to wear school uniform on the judging day? Answer 2: No they don't.   Question 3: Is the journal required to be bound or in a folder? Answer 3: It’s best stapled together in a plastic pocket.   Question 4: Are parents and teachers able to watch? Answer 4: Yes Yes! Teachers may even help us as judges if they are available!   Question 5: Can the journal contain photos as well as diagrams? Answer 5: Yes. Especially to show the modifications you have made to the design to show improved accuracy.   Question 6: What will the students be asked about their specific insect? Answer 6: In addition to questions about how they made it, and how it works, this year they will also be asked “why” their insect has its particular appearance. “Where would it live, what might it eat, how does it protect itself” etc and “does it have any particular adaptations to help it survive in its environment?” eg. If it lives in the desert it might be sandy coloured, or if it eats other smaller animals it might have sharp pincers to catch prey etc.   Question 7: We have tested cotton reel cars, done various tests but how do you attach the insect to the machine without it turning over and over? Sorry can not work this out. Are the any pictures so I can help my students? Regards - Alex Lilydale Answer 7: Can you build it like a car, so that the cotton reel turns around but the body stays above? Perhaps you could try attaching a light body frame to the stick at the side of the bobbin (which twists the rubber band) as that does not go around, but only up and down. This gives your insect a slow hopping sort of motion. That is probably the easiest. Keep your body light and low but leaving enough clearance for reel to turn beneath . I just tried the light plastic tray from a packet of biscuits (excellent…had to finish the bikkies first! Three sections for bikkies makes 3 parts of insect body!) If light you can attach by glue gun, or I just made a couple of small holes and tied plastic onto stick with 2 light twist ties. The ties might even be legs! It works, admittedly slowly, using one of the Prof Bunsen cotton-reel kits. Have you seen them? I have some spares if you’d like to try them, then adapt your own. If you have a washer at the turning end, you can make a mark on this and you will notice that it does not actually move around, just the rubber band inside it: maybe you could attach small stick-like body to that. Have you read: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=310085? No pictures but some ideas. Keep in touch.   Question 8: you please clarify whether the life cycle and habitat component is to be for a real insect or an imaginary one. So in other words do the children create an imaginary creature with an imaginary life cycle or do they need to base it on a real insect.? Regards - Sandra Long Answer 8: I would imagine it could be either a real insect, or probably more fun to be a creative combination of many real ones they might read about, so that they have learned about the concept of adaptation to environmental pressures. Eg. If living in the desert: (or pond, or soil…) ·  “it is sandy coloured for camouflage” ·  “it is long and thin so it looks like a dead twig”  or “flat because it lives under stones to stop drying out” ·  “it chirps and makes smells to attract a mate” ·  “it lays eggs on green plants for caterpillars  to feed on when they hatch” ·  “it has wings to fly and mate/lay eggs” ·  “it has sharp nippers to grab and eat bits of food” It would probably be good to look at one or two real insects to see the basic structure, and get them to ask…”why does it have that structure?... legs.. wings.. what does it eat. Where does it live etc.)  This then ties into the Biodiversity theme: there are so many different kinds of living things as there are different ways (adaptations) of overcoming same environmental problems, as well as different environments with other pressures… Hope it is a good learning experience for the kids.   2010 Technology Challenge I know a few schools where students are already busy designing and building their rubber-band powered insects for the Technology section of TSTS. Here is a great opportunity to “learn by doing” about  forces and motion, and link up with studies on biodiversity. PLEASE NOTE: The Northern Public Judging Day. Due to the extraordinary popularity of the Game On 2 exhibition at the QVMAG, we have had to change the venue to the Kindergarten Building, Launceston Church Grammar Junior School, Lyttleton St., East Launceston. 9am -1pm... The Southern Public Judging Day will be held on Sunday August 8th, 9:30am until approx 12:30. Unfortunately we had to change the venue from the Activities Centre to the Physics Laboratory located within the Maths and Physics building at the University of Tasmania Campus, Sandy Bay.   Click Here to download a map. Judging for NW students will be arranged by negotiation. Students need to bring their insect to be judged, as well as their construction journal outlining the “design, make, evaluate” process they have worked through. The journal will be left at the venue for further scrutiny by judges. As this event falls during National Science Week there will be many displays at the QVMAG of interest to students and families while they wait. It is Open Day at Hobart UTAS campus, so there will be other events as well there. We have had up to 100 entries in Launceston before, so families will need to be prepared to be patient! For further details see Page 4 of the:2010 Biodiversity Booklet. Any questions regarding this can be emailed to the Director by  and the answers will be displayed here on the Technology page soon after.   Need An Idea? This website might give some ideas to start, using a cotton reel and a rubber band to store the energy; [ Click Here ]