Good morning. Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to design a stunt that includes as many energy changes and and examples of different forces at work as possible.

Sounds difficult? Not when you can find most of the information you need from your Year 9 or Year 10 Science text books!

One of my Fifth Form (Year 11) Science classes had a go at this Mission a few years ago (before we had Mr Tom Cruise visit Taranaki to film The Last Samurai) with only one hour of class time to plan and create the stunt. The students had to supply the materials but could also use normal lab equipment.

We were looking for imaginative demonstrations of forces at work and energy changes involved with the stunt display. While everyone wanted to blow things up, safety was also a major factor! We had balls rolling down ramps, triggering catapults, that knocked over dominoes that made a balloon rise carrying a plastic soldier that...

Why not run a contest at your school to develop the "best" stunts and then challenge other local schools?

Get your thinking caps on and start planning! You will have to include a brief written explanation of the science involved so the judges can score the complexity, and creativity, of your entry. See how many forces are at work and also describe the energy transformations/changes that are involved.

Good luck. Should you or any of your I.M Force be caught or killed... nah, thats silly...

FIND OUT MORE:-

1. For more special effects and displays, see the Dalek and TARDIS built for the 2005 Careers Expo.
2. High School students doing proper scientific research? Not impossible if you know how
3. Impossible learning...graduating at age 10 is not so difficult after all...just different...