MBFE - Day 10 - Plankton races and Star Wars Day

We spent time in class today discussing life as plankton, including what Reynolds Numbers are and what they mean, and considering plankton body shape and its effect on sinking rate.  That's when I remembered a lab exercise I'd been toying with and decided it was the perfect time to try it out.

Each student received 5g of plasticene clay and were told to use it to make an object that would sink as slowly through the water as possible, that is, to make up a plankton shape.

While they were doing that I filled a glass cylinder that was in the lab.  It was maybe a foot across and a couple of feet tall.  I then told the class that we were going to have plankton races...the object that sank slowest wins.  There was a bracket and plankton went head-to-head in matched pair races.

The principle suggests that the plankton with the largest surface to volume ratio should sink the slowest.

Many of the shapes that students came up with were variations on large, flat discs.  This is indeed a way to increase surface to volume ratios, and the games were on!

There was a lot of cheering, a little competitiveness and lots of fun as plankton sank in best two of three contests.

Here are the results of round 1:

 It was Jay and Janae in the finals, and the winner was?  Janae!

I then looked at the designs and realized that if these were zooplankton that there would not really be enough room inside for their internal organs, so I then gave each class member a small plastic vial that represented the planktons' bodies.  They then had to build their overall form around that.  And then we raced again.

Here are the results of round 2:

It was again Jay and Janae in the finals, and the winner?  Janae!  Again!!

As those of you who know Janae would have guessed, she accepted victory with the dignity and modesty she is well known for.  (Ha ha)

And that was Day 10!  Or was it?

How could I forget to mention this?  Day 10 of our trip was May the 4th.  And in some circles this qualifies as a major unofficial holiday - "STAR WARS DAY!" 

So that evening the students were all invited over to my cottage where we watched "Rogue One" and snacked on goodies like "Chewie Chip Cookies", "Yoda Soda", "Ham Solo" (little sliced ham rolls), "Leia hair buns", etc.  It was a great time and just about everyone joined in.  My wife was right, we are a bunch of nerds!  And happily so.