WELCOME TO SCIENCE TOY MAKER

Mysterious, Kinetic, Noisy, Do-It-Yourself Science Projects that Entice Scientific Investigation

You have found the non-commercial, teacher-created site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. You won't find slick, well-designed web pages here--more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you poke around though, you'll find good stuff. Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids, parents, teachers, teenagers, home schoolers, science fair participants and citizen scientists everywhere.

All science toys and projects:

This video of smashing the paper airplane distance record is spectacular! Congratulations to friend John Collins (AKA The Paper Airplane Guy and inventor of the original Tumbling Wing walkalong glider and in general a great ambassador for science all over the world). John’s design, named after he wife Suzanne, broke the old record by over 19 feet.

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NEW SCIENCE PROJECT for 2012! The Robot Voice Talk Box only costs pennies to make, it's fun and you'll see how we turn raw sound into speech with our vocal tract. If YouTube is blocked at your school, here's the Schooltube equivalent.

Our lungs force air past the vocal folds in our throat. A talk box replaces them with a balloon and a vibrating column of air respectively. We shape the sound--especially vowels--by changing the shape of our mouth. You can even replace the mouth with a cut-apart soda bottle.

Lots of cool, relaed links to vowel resonators, talk boxes, etc.

Here is a new, easier way to to slice recycled foam for ultra-efficient air-surfing gliders. Thin foam has proven itself far better than other materials. I will start selling it soon to people who don't want to bother with making their own. But it's not that difficult and costs very little to hot-wire cut it yourself. Text explanation to the video here.

If you're not sure if air surfing is for you, try this simple paper walkalong glider first. Easy to make, but a challenge to launch and fly. If you can fly the paper Big Mouth Tumblewing, you are ready for the more efficient foam gliders. SchoolTube equivalent. The pattern is here.

New Paper Walkalong Glider Design?
Alfredo Ramirez of Columbia sent this video of his impressive flight in the Red Bull extreme paper airplane event. It has good size (= greater efficiency). And I like the dihedral, which might give better stability than my design. Alfredo has offered to make a video about how to make and fly it which I will feature on Sciencetoymaker.org. Check back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTmHhT1Fgrw

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New Project: DIY Light Emitting Diode (LED) Torch (flashlight)

I've got good news and bad news. The good news comes from James Dunn, who designed a build-it-yourself LED torchlight (called a flashlight in North America) to teach his Beaver Scouts the basics of electricity. It's a very useful project! The bad news is that it uses a no-slop medicine dispenser that might only be available in the United Kingdom and Australia. So here is the PDF of the plan James sent.

Nurofen Torch Instructions for Scouts_363KB

If you think of ways to adapt it from other materials, please send feedback and I'll put it on this page. Updates will appear here

LED TORCH_FLASHLIGHT

SCIENCE TOYS ARE INTERNATIONAL! Click here to see which countries people have visited from. Over 160 different countries so far. Since the time of the Renaissance enthusiastic science has crossed national borders.

Updated: 5/16/12