Talks and demonstrations available to schools
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Jointly funded by Public Understanding of Science Small Awards, PPARC, Swindon, UK and Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Have you ever had an electric shock from a tv, doorknob or car door?
Have you ever stuck a balloon to a wall after rubbing it on your head?
Have you ever seen lightning?
All of these are caused by static electricity.
Static electricity is the build up of charge on the surface of a material. Once the material has become electrically charged, it can be used to show simple attractive and repulsive effects. The picture below shows static electricity causing individual hairs to be repelled from each another so that the hairs stand on end.
If the amount of charge on a surface becomes too great it can jump to another surface in the form of an electric spark.
The workshop:
The workshop is ideal for year 6 children, but can be adapted for different age groups. It consists of two PowerPoint presentations separated by some experiments designed for children to develop an understanding of electrostatics. The first presentation explains how static electricity occurs and the second develops an understanding of how lightning occurs.
Schools are welcome to download the relevant files and run the workshop themselves. Alternatively, contact phys-pp-outreach@bristol.ac.uk to request a speaker from the Physics Department.
Follow this link for a copy of the PowerPoint presentations (both are in the same file).
Follow this link for a copy of the booklet to accompany the experiments.
Follow this link for a list of materials and facilities the school or college will need to provide (also includes a list of equipment the school must supply if they run the workshop themselves). The document also contains a description of the activities.
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The Van de Graaff generator is available as part of the workshop. It is a piece of equipment that teachers and pupils alike really enjoy. It is used to transfer a large charge to various objects, including people! There are lots of fun things you can do with it.
The generator is believed to be perfectly safe. Though you can get a mild electrical shock after using it, the only possible danger we know about is to children from the generator is if they have cochlear implants. Unfortunately it may not work on humid or damp days. |
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Robert J. Van de Graaff
invented the static electricity generator in 1929.
It can be used to build up such a large charge that a spark of electricity jumps from the large sphere to the small one. This spark is a small and controlled form of lightning. Each centimetre of the spark is about 30,000 volts! |
To invite a speaker to give a different talk at your school or college:
Speakers from the Physics Department at the University of Bristol are able to visit schools and colleges and give a variety of talks. Follow the link to see what talks are available, the intended age of the audience and the parts of the physics syllabus they address.
For further information please email phys-pp-outreach@bristol.ac.uk.
