The Yenka blog

New from Yenka: composite shapes, reactivity of electrodes and circular motion

Some more new whiteboard lessons for you to use with Yenka.  If you've not already got the Yenka products we've used to make them, you can get a free licence to try out the content.

Circular motion (changing direction)

Made with Yenka Science - (Motion)

Simulate circular motion using a ball on the end of a rod. Observe the direction of the tension force, and then change the ball's velocity to see the effect this has on the direction of the centripetal force.

Reactivity of electrodes

Made with Yenka Science - (Electrochemistry)

Use a voltmeter to measure the voltage across a simulated electrochemical circuit. Change the metal electrodes and look at the resulting voltage to work out the order of reactivity of the metals.

Areas of composite shapes

Made with Yenka Mathematics - (3D Shapes)

Introducing composite shapes, looking first at composite shape made up of a rectangle and a triangle. You can use the areas of these shapes to calculate the area of the composite shape, and then use Yenka to make your own composite shapes.

Posted at 04:50PM Jan 22, 2010 by Dominic  |  Comments[0]

This week's activities: solubility & temperature, focal length and weighted coins

Happy new year!  We've got some more new activities for use with Yenka.  This week's activities are...

Solubility and Temperature

Made with Yenka Science - (Inorganic Chemistry)

In this model you can dissolve chemicals in water until the solution is saturated, and use the mass of dissolved chemical to calculate its solubility at different temperatures.

Focal Length of a Converging Lens

Made with Yenka Science - (Light and Sound)

In this model, you can investigate the effect of changing the focal length of a lens by comparing three converging lenses with different focal lengths. Choose the correct lens to focus the image on the screen.

Weighted Coin

Made with Yenka Mathematics - (Statistics)

In this model, you can learn how to calculate an estimated probability using a weighted coin game. Investigate the relationship between the accuracy of the estimate and the number of trials.

Using the activities

To use these classroom activities, you need Yenka installed on your computer.

• If you've not already got your free Leader in Technology licence, sign up here.
• If you prefer, you can also open these activities with the free home licence, the 15-day school trial, or with the full school version of the relevant product.

Then simply click the link and open the activity you want, and start experimenting!

Posted at 02:41PM Jan 08, 2010 by Dominic  |  Comments[0]

Online Yenka training sessions

To help you get started with Yenka, we're offering online training sessions for UK schools.  There are two options:

• Free 15-minute basic training session
  Teachers in UK secondary schools can get a free 15-minute online training session. This will help you get started with Yenka, and find out what it's capable of.
  
  
• 1-hour full training sessions
  If want to cover specific topics in more detail, we're now offering 1 hour online training sessions, for just £100 + VAT. 
  

For your training, you'll need the latest version of Yenka installed.  You'll also need a phone by the computer.  Before the training starts, we'll send you an e-mail with instructions for how to log in to your training session.

Places are limited, though.  To reserve a session, please send an e-mail to clare-AT-yenka-DOT-com, telling us

• your name and school
• the subject you teach
• when you're normally available
  
• any specific topics you want us to cover
• whether you want a free basic training session, or a full 1-hour session, or both.
  

We'll then get back to you to book your slot.

At the moment, our training is only available to teachers in UK schools.  However, if you're teaching somewhere else in the world, please contact us if you have questions, and we'll do our best to help.

Posted at 04:33PM Jan 05, 2010 by Dominic  |  Comments[6]