Education

Education Workshops

The Faraday Centre offers workshops on many topics which demonstrate scientific principles to school children and show them how those principles have been applied historically, laying the foundation for many of the useful innovations we enjoy today.

Hands On
The workshops are designed for a variety of age groups from year 0 to 13, with each session tailored to a specific year group or curriculum level. The workshops are very much hands on and involve students in physical and mental challenges which give them a better understanding of the physical world around them.

To make a booking go to Contact Us

and look under School Bookings

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Workshop Programme 2012

Machines and Inventions

Tailored to the age range and the learning focus of each class, this guided tour of The Faraday Centre highlights human ingenuity, some of the machines invented to make life easier or more fun, and how simple machines people have invented can be combined to make more complex machines. The tour is followed by students’ hands-on exploration of some of the historical technologies on display.

Years: 1 - 6

Dates: Ongoing

Duration: 1½ hours

Learning Areas:

Social Sciences, Technology, Science

Everyday Technology of the Olden Days

What would life be like without refrigerators, television, computers and mobile phones? Come and do things the old-fashioned way, including hand-cranked and dial telephones, manual typewriters, adding machines, shopping at the General Store and performing a radio play. Several programmes available :

Everyday Technology of the Olden Days (Years 1- 4)

Everyday Technology 1930s - 1940s (Years 4- 10)

Everyday Technology 1880s - 1920s (Years 4- 10)

Everyday Technology - Tailor your own (Years 8- 13)

investigations

Years: 1- 13

Dates: Ongoing

Duration: 1½ hours

Learning Areas:

Social Sciences, Technology

Wheels

Since wheels were first invented more than 5000 years ago, people have found an amazing variety of uses for them. The Faraday Centre is jam-packed with wheels used for transport and wheels that make machines go. Find out what the first wheels were used for, learn how wheels work and explore the countless ways we use wheels in our everyday lives

Years: 1 - 4

Dates: Ongoing

Duration: 1½ hours Learning Areas:

Technology, Science, Social Sciences

Transport

Ride on a sledge and rollers to find out how they led to the invention of wheels. Drive a hand-operated railway jigger. See

the mighty Fullagar engine, built to power a ship.

Investigate Napier’s trams, why horse-drawn carriages had big wheels, how steam engines work and why top-deck passengers on Napier’s steam buses always got covered in soot.

Years: 4 - 8

Dates: Ongoing

Duration: 1½ hours

Learning Areas:

Technology, Social Sciences

At Wairoa Museum

Falling and Flying

What goes up must come down - but why? New Zealand is at the bottom of the world, so why don’t we all fall off? And if we can fall down, why can’t we fall up? In this hands-on science workshop students will investigate the mysteries of gravity and flight. Highlights include a hot air balloon, marble ramp race, coin and feather drop, and a weighty walk on the planet Jupiter.

Years: 3 - 8

Dates: 5 June -

28 Sept.

Duration: 1½ hours

Learning Areas:

Technology, Science

Explore The Faraday Centre

The Faraday Centre, Napier’s former Power House, is now an Aladdin’s cave of technological treasures from days gone by. Come for a guided tour, or choose a theme (e.g electricity, communications, electromagnetic technologies, steam engines, entertainment technology, home appliances through the ages) and develop your own hands-on enquiry-based programme in consultation with The Faraday Centre educator.

Years: 1 - 13

Dates: Ongoing

Duration: 1½ hours

Learning Areas:

Science, Technology,

Social Sciences

Light

Test the Sun’s power with a solar furnace; team up for a reflections challenge; use lenses, prisms, colour mixers and light boxes to investigate the behaviour of light. Plus, there’s the Camera Obscura, optical illusions, funky distorting mirrors and more. This is a hands-on curriculum-focused programme with workshops tailored to different year groups.

Years: 1- 10

Dates: 30 Jan -

25 May.

Duration: 1½ hours

Learning Areas:

Science, Technology

Light

This exciting Faraday Centre programme is heading to Wairoa in Term 3.

This is a hands-on curriculum-focused programme where we

test the Sun’s power with a solar cooker; team up for a reflections challenge;use lenses, prisms, colour mixers and light boxes to investigate the behaviour of light. Plus, there’s the Camera Obscura, optical illusions, funky distorting mirrors and more.

Years: 1- 8

Dates: 30 July -

10 August.

Duration: 1½ hours

Venue: Wairoa

Museum Learning Areas:

Science, Technology