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Escape the Amazon

ACTIVITY SCENARIO

You are on an expedition in the Amazon rainforest but you have been separated from your group without a compass.

AGE: 11-16

TEDI brand photo

In order to reach safety, you have to get back to base camp which lies East.

In your kit you only have these materials:

  • A bowl of water
  • A sewing needle or paperclip
  • A magnet

Can you engineer a way to find your base camp through the dense Amazon jungle?

  1. INTRODUCTION

    The aim is to try make a working compass from materials that you can find at home. The tricky part of this project is to work out how to make a needle float on water. You will learn about magnetism, navigation, magnetic poles, physics and forces.

  2. WHAT YOU'LL NEED

    A bowl (non-metallic) of water, a steel needle or paperclip, a tissue paper and a flat fridge magnet (rare earth magnets or straight bar magnets work best)

  3. QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

    How and why the needle acts as a compass? Why does the needle get magnetised?

  4. ACTIVITY REFLECTION

    What went well? What didn’t go so well? What would you do differently next time?

    We’d love to see the outcome of your design – send pictures to outreach@tedi-london.ac.uk