A ping pong ball, a lemon, ice cubes and balloon were all part of the interactive lessons pupils at Ashburton Intermediate School have been learning about this week at the Ashburton Aviation Museum.
Over four days, 240 pupils have undertaken a series of activities and experiments with volunteers from the museum.
There were six stations set up at the museum for the students to visit in groups.
At one station pupils got to hold a thermometer and watch the temperature rise, this was followed by observing how as steam heated a bottle a balloon on the neck of the bottle began to inflate.
Lessons at that station concluded with pupils creating ‘‘a tornado‘‘ by swirling water from one bottle to another, creating a vortex.
Ashburton Aviation Museum volunteer and co-ordinator of the programme Dennis Swaney said the station also included an activity where blue blocks of ice were put at one end of tank of hot water.
‘‘As they melt, they created a visual demonstration of a weather front,’’ Dennis said.
One of the highlights for many of the pupils is watching and if lucky enough, launching rockets into space.
Pupils used wheels, a vacuum cleaner and ping pong balls to learn about wind.
Remaining stations included one dedicated to flying, and another to navigation.
All resources for the lessons including the rocket were made by museum volunteers.
