BANANAS, plasticine and coins were among some of the items two Stourbridge secondary school pupils used to create music on their computers recently.
Year 8 students from Redhill School and Kingswinford’s Summerhill School took part in the innovative ‘E.ON Energises Anything’ workshops which saw the pupils use any items they can find to make circuits.
The sessions are designed to help their understanding of electricity, conduction and circuits, and concluded with students performing their musical creations for their classmates.
During the workshops, pupils rolled up their sleeves and experimented with a range of foods, plants and everyday objects which they clipped to circuit boards in order to demonstrate how the items could help conduct electricity.
Victoria Clarke, head of design technology at Redhill School, said: “The class really enjoyed trying something new and fully embraced the challenges they were set during the workshop.
“It was a lively session, and judging by the music produced, pupils quickly came to understand that just about any material that can conduct even a tiny bit of electricity can work in this set-up.”
Redhill School pupils Keenan Johnson and Alex Harper
Billie-Jean Poole, who helped organise the sessions for E.ON, said: “These hands-on activities have been specifically designed to fit within the physics, design and computing curricula, and to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) topics to young people, but we also hope to provide a bit of fun and entertainment in the classroom.”
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