Resources
These are links to great sites that give you more information about the principles behind Pathfinders’ Science Kits!
Grey Company Trebuchet Page – Well, if you haven’t already found everything you wanted to know about the trebuchet, then this is THE site. It has it all, including more links than a ten fathom anchor chain! Some of the links to mathematical sites and simulators don’t work, I’ll try to get to them and load the links here when I can.
Nova – Medieval Siege – A great site from PBS in the United States, with some fun and interesting activities about the Trebuchet and life in the middle ages in a castle. You can even try your hand at shooting a trebuchet and destroying a castle!
Levers – How a Bathroom Scale Works – Another How Stuff Works site, it shows the inner mechanisms of a bathroom scale. Great if you are studying levers, in fact it would be a lot of fun to make one of these on your own! Go ahead, take apart the bathroom scale for parts!
Levers – Raise an Obelisk – This PBS site has a shockwave activity where you can raise an Egyptian obelisk using a lever. It has the formula for the mechanical advantage of the lever. Very good for students who want some practical experience with a lever and need to practice using a formula. Good for ages 9 and up.
Bridges – Building Big – This is the best bridge site I have found on the net! There are activities to test the strength of different materials, and how they apply in real situations. The Forces Lab is an excellent illustration of the factors that engineers need to take into account when they design a bridge. The Bridge Challenge is one of the best interactive bridge problem solving activities you can get! If you miss this site then your students have not seen it all!
Automatons – Cam Shafts – A great link through How Stuff Works that show 3-D animations of how camshafts work in a variety of situations. If you can’t picture how a follower works this is the site for you!
Siege Engine – Wikipedia – This is a GREAT place to start getting information on most any topic. It is a community-driven online encyclopedia, that can be updated and edited by anyone.
Codex Atlanticus – the entire Leonardo da Vinci collection of his drawings and some written work in high resolution – you can spend endless hours scrolling through and zooming in on even the most tiny drawings – this is the coolest site on the internet for Leonardo fans!