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Physics Teaching Precision Optical Glass Prism
by broxi3781
Now you can - well perhaps you won't actually be walking on the ceiling but as you gaze through this brilliant device - it will look as if you are. You can also make your own rainbows, bend light and make your home into a carnival house very much like a house of mirrors with the walls, doors and furniture warped and twisted. And the best ... thing of all - no batteries are required.
I'm not quite sure how long prisms have been around. One of my best childhood memories is of a very kind lending me on for spring break. I spent 2 weeks walking around everywhere holding one of over my eyes. The teacher had simply warned me - "For God's sake don't step into a road with it", and let me take it away to have fun. Of course now it is questionable if a child would even be allowed to play with this in class, it does have sharp corners, it is made of glass, and walking about looking through this is very strange experience, but that was in the glorious days before health and safety banned fun. If you got hurt then, your parents told you to be more careful - they didn't run to the solicitors.
I also know Isaac Newton had a prism, and if were still alive, he'd be a good bit older than I am. Glass was expensive then, and Newton could not afford to have a glass maker custom make him a 3 sided glass,so he used 3 pieces of window pane stuck together with sap, and filled with resulting triangle with water - I'm not quite sure what he used for a base. He used this to project a beautiful rainbow like spectrum of colours onto a white background, showing for the first time that light was made up of all of the colours. This was completely different from the prevailing scientific theory of the time, that colours were made of a mixture of dark and light. Ordinary white light was thought to be without any colour. Newton proved this was false by separating the light into the spectrum of colours, and then using a second prism to refract the light back into a single beam of white light. However, Newton did not invent the prism, they were around before, scientists just thought the glass added colour to the light.
Ever since borrowing my teachers prism, I wanted one. This was top of my Christmas list for many years, but sadly I never saw another prism in my childhood. They were considered more of a teaching item then a toy, and not something you would have picked up in local shop or catalogue. Even now, if you want one of these you will most likely have to order online. This means you won't get to try it out first, so it is important to get the right one. Many of these ship from China or Hong kong, so if you are in a hurry, be sure you find a UK seller and expect to pay a higher price.
I have read in several places that it does not matter if the prism is glass or plastic. I believed this and bought a plastic one first and was terribly dissapointed. It really is not anywhere near as good. This particular one is listed on amazon as Physics Teaching Precision Optical Glass Prism. It is sold by Suntek online. It came in a lovely red box with a paaded cut out shape to keep the prism safe and gold writing - in Chinese. I haven't a clue what it said, but the children did take some interest in viewing the writing as well, so a brief lesson in other cultures and styles of writing. There are no instructions, but you won't really need any. This is simple enough to use, and I'll be including some quick instructions below. I don't really think brand name will matter on this, I believe any 6" glass prism will have the same effect. but I have just ordered a 6" prism from ebay at £5.12 so if there is any difference I will update. This was £7.99 on Amazon but has just gone up to £9.99. I've found what appears to be the same prism from a UK seller at £9.19 on Amazon listed as BestDealUK Optical Glass Triple Triangular Prism Physics , but prices start at only £5.12 for this size on ebay.
Size does matter here as well, and I really can't recommend strongly enough, if you decide to buy one, buy a proper optical glass at least 4" in length. I have two prisms from this company, one measuring 4" and one measuring 6". I really do feel that 4" is the minimum size worth considering. There are several 2" models available as well, and you can use these smaller ones to refract light and create a rainbow, but it is more difficult to get it positioned just right ( my plastic one is tiny as well). A 2" prism will bend a laser torches beam just as well as a larger prism. But you can not hold a 2" prism over both eyes and it isn't nearly as much fun with just one eye. Also we have not tried this for trick photography yet, I'm waiting for a more consistently sunny day, but I understand you can all sorts of fun with this as well, but the larger prism is required. The children do prefer the 6" prism, but there really is not a lot of difference in use.
OUR EXPERIENCE:
We have used this to show the children the colours of light. The very best effect requires sunlight - without clouds. This can be difficult in Northern Ireland. But when you do get a good bright patch of sunlight, you run outside as fast you can before it is gone, hold the prism and project rainbows on to walls, doors or anything else. If the sunlight is weak you might want to tape a white paper to the wall to display the rainbow, but if you have decent sunlight you can project it onto anything, even people. This can be done to some extent with a strong torch, but it isn't nearly as good.
We have also used this to split up the light from a lantern and to even an ordinary energy saving light bulb. looking directly through the prism. Don't give up if you don;'t see anything at first, it is just a matter of tilting the prism back and forth until you get the right position. We've used this to look at TV's, the computer, the aquarium and anything else with a light source seeing if we can pick up rainbows.
Looking through the prism directly will curve and distort images too. You can stretch and shorten things, curve the shapes or even make everything upside down. We have fun looking at the fish, at each other, at the walls and ceilings. We do use these walking about as well. This requires two people. One holds the prism horizontally and one watches and says stop if the walker if they are going to walk into something. The extra person or people also have fun laughing at the person with the prism staggering about like a drunken sailor. If you tilt the prism right, it really does look like you are walking on the ceiling. Another angle will give you the effect of the earth curving away beneath your feet. It is very difficult to walk a straight line though you end up trying to compensate for the fact that everything looks so strange, and it gives you a dizzy feeling after awhile.
We've also used this to make a pretend burglar alarm in the teen titans house. By shining a laser torch through this and then bouncing the beam off of mirrors you can have all sorts of fun.
Unfortunately, I could not completely replicate Newtons experiment. This requires two prisms, and my plastic one simply is not good enough. I have ordered a 2nd prism so we can split the light and then refract the colours back into one, recreating the famous experiment.
OUR OPINION:
My sons absolutely love this, and another reason for buying a second prism is to allow them both to play at the same time. Like many parents, I have felt at times pressured to by the latest electronic gadget which is meant to help a child's education, but having a limited budget, many of these have been out of my price range. But I have found when I have managed to buy many of these things, they simply do not provide as much entertainment or education as the older more simple items. An electronic game can only be used one way, and by it's nature, it directs game play. The child can not invent their own ways to play. I love this toy because it encourages children to think, and be creative, to find new ways to enjoy it. I do not really use this for teaching, but just as a wonderful play thing, but I believe the children learn much more just playing with this than with formal lessons. I think they remember something more when they discover and experience it themselves. I do show them the odd trick with this, but I believe they learn so much more by discovering the properties of this on their own than they would with proper lessons. However, in a classroom situation, I do think this could be a brilliant teaching tool as well, with a teacher demonstrating the properties of light.
SAFETY:
This is sold on Amazon under toys and games, but most sellers refer to it as a physics teaching prism., and the only glass prism to have an age range is recommended for ages 10 +. The corners of this are flattened so as not to reach a sharp point, but I do still feel a child could hurt themself if the fell and hit an eye and the prism was held vertically.and it is glass. I'm sure a child could break this if they dropped it on something hard enough, like the hearth, but it has survived being dropped on the floor from a child's height. We do use this as a toy, but it is a special toy, like our chemistry sets, that is used under adult supervision, rather than thrown in a toy box.
OTHER RECOMENDATIONS:
If you can afford to buy two of these, I would, simply so you can fully recreate Newton's experiments, just google "Newton and the Color Spectrum" and you should find plenty of information. However, you can still have plenty of fun with one. A few extras to make this more fun include: small mirrors, a laser pointer, and a book about the properties of light. I'm using Richard Hammond's Can You Feel the Force, which has a small section on light and Scholastic's Discovery Box light, but I'm thinking of ordering DK's Eyewitness Light as well. If anyone can recommend a better book on the properties of light for a young child please message me.
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Fireman Sam Activity Quiz Wheel
by emmad5689
==Purchase==
Towards the end of last year my youngest daughter was going through a great liking for Fireman Sam, I was doing my Tesco supermarket online shop and found this toy reduced from £15 down to £10 and deciced it would be a great Christmas present for her. The toy is still being sold in our local Tesco store and even ... better it is now being sold at £7.50.
==Packaging==
The packaging was a very simple cardboard box which was open at the front so that you couls have a play with it which I did when my shopping arrived to make sure I thought it would be suitable, the toy comes complete with batteries to make this possible. The box states that the toy is suitabke for ages 2 and up which I think is probably about the right age range as my daughter is 2 and she can play with this with some help.
==The Look==
The toy is a bright red plastic circle which can be pulled back to allow the middle of the circle to stand upwards for playing with. The inner circle is dark blue plastic and has a dark blue base which has 4 pictures of Fireman Sam on it with the settings of Discovery, Quiz, Search Out and Music. Next to the 4 pictures of Fireman Same there is a sliding button to turn the system on and off, to begin with Emily couldn't move the slider but she soon got to grips with it.
The main part of the inner circle has a arrow pointer with Fireman Sam pictured on it which can be moved around the circle which is split into 8 sections and each there is a picture, you have got Mike holding his hammer, Tom with his helmet, Norman with his skateboard, Penny with an axe, Charlie with a bucket, Elvis with his guitar, Helen with her handbag and then Station Officer Steel with a Ladder.
The toy is brightly coloured and all the sections are in different colours, the colours all of course make the toy attractive to young children. The characters are all exactly like they are in the TV show which makes them immediately recognisable and as soon as Emily opened the present she wanted it out of it's box so she could play with it.
==Turn On==
When you turn the toy on you get a little bell sound and then the toy is silent until you pick a play option, I found it surprising that a toy for a young child doesn't keep making noises to attract the child as most toys this type do.
==Discovery==
When you pick the Discovery setting you get a little tune played and then Sam will say "Ok let's get busy" if you don't do anything within about 30 seconds then Fireman Sam will keep saying this over and over again. In this setting your child has to turn the arrow in the centre of the circle and then the toy will announce who the character is in Fireman Sams voice and then the voice of the character says a little saying, you have
Mike - Not a bad job if I say so myself
Tom - It's gonna be a busy day
Norman - You need to call Fireman Sam
Penny - Penny to Sam i'm going to need your help
Charlie - The first rule at sea is never panic
Elvis - Reporting for duty
Helen - We don't want any accidents
Station Officer Steel - Good work everyone
Emily likes this setting and she tried to copy some of the sayings, I like the way all the sayings are things that the characters often say in the show and I think this is quite important for a young child as it helps them to recognise the characters from the show.
==Quiz==
The quiz setting is exactly what you would expect it to be, Fireman Sam asks your child a question which is linked to the discovery setting for example "Who says not a bad job if I say so myself" when your child then turns the arrow to the correct character Sam will announce the name of the character and the character will say their line again before Fireman Sam will congratulate your child on getting the question correct, if your child turns the arrow to the wrong character Fireman Sam tells them they're wrong and asks them to try again.
Emily can recognise some of the characters but not others from the show although she still plays with the toy alot so I am sure she will recognise more of them in turn, She often mixes up Tom, Charlie and Mike but then I don't think their voices are as distinctive as the others.
==Search Out==
This setting is where the pictures that go with each character come into play, Fireman Sam will ask your child to find one of the items that the characters are pictured with and then congratulate them for getting it correct just like with the Quiz setting. I like this setting as I think some younger children may find it easier to see an object than recognise a voice or syaing however at 2 year old not all the objects will necessarily be recognisable such as an axe but the other items are pretty much every day items making it an easy game.
==Music==
The music setting doesn't really give any encouragement for your child to play with the toy, when you select this option you just get a little tune and nothing more. To play in this setting you have to turn the arrow aroudn the characters and you get sound effects rather than actual music, there are a couple of different sirens, Elvis singing, the Fireman Sam theme tune, children singing, a helicopter and a couple of little pieces of music from the show, the music and sound effects only last about 5 seconds each and this setting is pretty boring and Emily gets bored with it very quickly.
==Opinions==
I like that the batteries come with this toy as I think it is awful for a child to open a new toy and not be able to play with it straight away, the battery life is brilliant and we haven't had to replace the batteries yet and they show no signs of being near ready for changing. When the batteries do need changing there is a flap on the back held down by a screw and it takes 2 x AAA batteries. The toy is really robust and when Emily hasn;t been able to get it to do as she wants she has been known to fling it yet it is still intact and the stand has no damage to it which would be the weakest part of the toy.
Emily enjoys playing with this toy and I love hearing her trying to repeat the sayings from the characters, she has now moved on a little from Fireman Sam and he is no longer a favourite character if hers however she still loves the toy but she does need help to get it onto the setting she wants and sometimes I have difficulty working out which one she wants it on.
the toy does get a little boring in that each setting only has 8 questions, sounds or sayings so it doesn;t hold her attention for long periods of time and she will generally play with it for about 10 minutes at a time but for £10 I am really pleased with the toy.
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