Friday 27 May 2016

Let's Tinker at Petrosains!



Once you enter the room, you'll see a lot of materials being displayed on tables like papers, marker pens, colouring pencils, cardboards, batteries, wires, wooden sticks and etc.


Take a seat. Observe materials on the table. Use your imagination and understand certain concepts to construct something. Then apply your creativity and you'll be able to create something. 


During the activity above, you’ll construct a working and wearable circuit. You’ll experiment with a battery, sticky tape and an LED bulb to learn how to connect a circuit, and then design a way for it to work on a wrist cuff, a badge, or any other wearable item. Watch your friends' eyes light up, as you light up the LED on your clothing just by wearing it!


You  can also make a unique lamp shutter from ice cream sticks! Ice cream sticks can be glued, taped, or even friction-fit together to create all sorts of cool objects and designs. Experiment & design your own awesome projects with these sticks to see what you can make!



A breadboard also known as a protoboard is a type of solderless electronic circuit building board. You can build an electronic circuit on a breadboard without any soldering! A breadboard is a great tool for quickly testing out a prototype circuit or hooking up a quick experiment. Breadboarding is an important step in testing out ideas or learning how things work. 



Take a look! Pop-up cards are a great twist on the ordinary greeting card. They are enormously fun (and easy!) to create, and the recipient of your card will be delighted. Now it's time to get creative and to make a pop up card of your own.


Tools such as pliers, scissors and soldering irons are available to help you affix the necessary components together to connect the circuit, or turn your badge on. 


Let's TINKER & make your way to Petrosains Innovation Lab today
Find out more at www.petrosains.com.my 






Posted by Ayu Royani
Petrosains Blogger                

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Cipta Akronim, Ingat Dengan Mudah!


Terdapat beberapa cara mudah yang digunakan untuk menghafal beberapa perkara yang berlainan dalam satu masa. Antaranya adalah seperti mengingat kata kunci, baca berulang kali dan membuat peta minda.

Selain itu, satu lagi cara yang sangat mudah boleh digunakan untuk menghafal adalah dengan mencipta akronim. Sebagai contoh, bagaimana cara untuk mengingati  satu senarai barangan runcit yang perlu dibeli iaitu bawang, agar-agar, cuka, dan asam jawa? Cara mudah untuk mengingatinya adalah cipta akronim dengan mengambil huruf pertama bagi setiap perkataan dan ia akan membentuk perkataan baru iaitu 'BACA'. 

Penggunaan akronim juga boleh diaplikasikan untuk tujuan pembelajaran. Akronim yang menarik dan berkaitan dengan keadaan semasa adalah lebih baik kerana ia lebih senang untuk diingati. Berikut adalah 3 akronim yang boleh digunakan untuk menghafal:-

1) Planet-planet dalam sistem suria 
2) Warna-warna pelangi mengikut turutan
3) Siri elektrokimia


Planet-planet dalam Sistem Suria


Warna-warna Pelangi



Siri Elektrokimia



Posted by Ayu Royani
Petrosains Blogger                

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Seeing Underwater WITHOUT Goggles. Special Abilities?


Something got into your eyes.  You lower your face in a bowl or sink of water to wash out that irritant.  Your eye stings.  You feel uncomfortable.  You wonder - why does it hurt?  Is it because of chlorine?  How about seawater?  How can some people comfortably see underwater without goggles?

Our vision is blurry underwater unless we put on swimming goggles.  Children of the Moken people, a tribe found deep in the island archipelagos on the Andaman Sea, and along the west coast of Burma & Thailand have unusually good underwater-vision.  What are these abilities?  Is it adaptation or acquired through practice?

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The Human Eye
Our eyes are made to allow it to focus only on a specific angle of light - the angle that light bends when it travels between air & the eye.  The part of the eye that allows us to focus on different things is known as the lens - it changes shapes so that we can focus on objects at various distances.

Credit: Wikipedia Commons


However the eye cannot focus correctly when light travels between water & a person's eye because the light is bent at an incorrect angle.  This is why we have blurry, unfocused vision when we open our eyes underwater.

Children of the Moken people
Anna Gislén of Sweden's Lund University investigated the unique ability of these children. She discovered that they could make their pupils smaller & change their lens shape (i.e. to accommodate or muscularly change the shape of the eye's lens to increase light refraction) for them to see underwater. 

Schematic diagrams of pupils underwater: The Moken child’s pupil (left) is smaller than that of a European child (right)


When pupils are constricted, vision is further improved.  This is similar to the process that improves focal depth if using a camera with a smaller aperture.

Credit: YouTube/BBC One

Can an adult see like the Moken children?
Scientists believe the skill isn't a genetic trait but something that is acquired with practice – any child could learn to have such extraordinary vision.  Anna Gislén tested with some European children & found that they were able to do it but not as well as the Moken children.  Does this mean adaptation played a part?

When we age, our lenses become less flexible.  That’s why adults lose the ability to accommodate underwater, and just like the Moken adults, we won’t be able to do this.  Give it a shot!  

Note:
There’s an alternative way to see underwater without having to manipulate your lens.
Check this website: How to Open Your Eyes Underwater without Goggles on and Not Hurt 



Shared by Azni Zainal Abidin
Guest Blogger