An Example Fun Problem Solving Project Using Light and other invisible energy!

Students use scientific knowledge about the transfer of light by application of STEAM methodology to solve novel, challenging and fun problems.

Students are challenged to solve a practical problem through the integration of scientific, engineering, artistic and technological tools that are used to demonstrate, synthesise, consolidate and evaluate their understanding about light.

Can you outsmart the baddies who have:

1. Built a wall across the road, blocking delivery of food supplies to your school canteen.
2. Created a 'force field' around the wall, which makes it impossible for all animals, machines and physical objects from getting close than three metres from the wall.
3. Positioned soldiers with weapons that can vapourise any person or animal that comes within three metres of the wall - even when the force-field is turned off

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to:

1. Make a plan to find a way to defeat, disable or get around the force-field using light.
2. Make a plan and build a weapon that uses light to overcome or disable the guards
3. Make a plan and build a weapon that uses a method that is NOT normally visible by light that can demolish the wall from a distance of three metres or more.

To beat the baddies, you must complete ALL the above three parts of 'YOUR MISSION' by designing solutions that overcome each of the three items listed under the 'YOUR PROBLEMS“ section (above).

When ALL THREE parts of 'YOUR MISSION' have been completed and the wall has been destroyed then then all of the baddies weapons will stop working and they will automatically be sucked back into the universe that they came from and your mission will be complete.

First, make sure you know/or find out what a 'force field' is?

1. Work with your team, or others to figure out a plan that can overcome the three parts of your mission (listed in the 'Your Mission' section above)
2. Write down your plan and submit it for approval by your leader/teacher who will ask you why you think that it will work.

You spies have reported:

1. The baddies are very tired and smelly and anything that smells nice will send them to sleep for one hour.
2. The power to the force-field is turned on/off using a light-activated switch (a night-light or similar device).
3. The gateway to the baddies universe is somewhere inside the wall. Destroying the wall will automatically send them back to their own universe.

Your spies have reported that the Japanese government has been developing a weapon to destroy the wall. The weapon is not powerful enough to destroy the wall. Your mission is to view this secret video and design a more powerful weapon that you can use to destroy the wall and beat the baddies:

HINT: Watch this video about the Top Secret Wall Blaster weapon being developed by Japanese Government:

Video 1. Secret Weapon Development from Japanese Government Weapons Lab

• View using VIEWPURE: Top Secret Weapon Development Video From Japanese Government Weapons Lab

Your mission must be completed without any human, liquid or physical object coming closer than a minimum distance of three metres from any part of the wall.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the information supplied by your spies to design a plan and then carry out that plan and defeat the baddies.

You must write down and explain your plan and what you did using scientific method

The generally agreed steps of the scientific method are to:

• Ask a question
• Do some background research
• Construct a hypothesis (a guess)
• Test your hypothesis by performing an experiment
• Write down what materials you will require.
• Write down the 'procedure' that you will use.
• Record your observations in a table of results and include labelled drawings.
• Analyse the data, write down your results, conclusions and suggestions for improvements.

You must write down your plan so that others can repeat or carry out your plan and/or avoid your mistakes in case the baddies kidnap you or defeat your team before you have been successful.

You may find it useful to write down your plan in your science journal using the following headings:

Don't forget to draw and label diagrams and/or use video/multimedia wherever you think that may be useful.

May the fourth be with you!