Build your own roller coaster ride
There was an item on The Gadget Show on Five this week where Suzi Perry and Ortis Deeley put together a simulated roller coaster in her front room (see the end of this video). The website is supposed to have details of how to do it yourself, but I can't find it. Hopefully I can manage without by downloading the software (No Limits Roller Coaster Simulator) and "hardware" (an old car seat welded to a metal plate with springs and handlebars - seemed to work better than it sounds!). Time to ask the DT department to get the welding gear out!
Try 3D gaming
Nvidia have released a consumer product (see PC Pro article) to enable 3D gaming on a home PC with a normal (if high end) graphics card. It uses an updated driver to read the Z-level data about the depth of objects in modern games, in conjunction with a pair of special glasses to produce a - reportedly fantastic - 3D experience. There are downsides: some people report that the system induces headaches, though the effect can be reduced by tweaking settings, and you do need a fancy monitor with a 120hz refresh rate: these currently cost over £200 in themselves. Despite these drawbacks, I'm hoping to convince a retailer to lend us the kit to show the kids what's possible. My local PC World couldn't help, which I think is a missed opportunity, but I won't give up!
A home-made 3D printer
I'm very lucky to have a very keen 6th form student, Nick, who wanted to build a Reprap machine. I'd read about it in PCW magazine but knew I didn't have the skills to be able to construct it. Follow the links for more detail, but basically it's a machine you can put together for a couple of hundred pounds which extrudes plastic to form 3D objects (like those shoes on the right). OK, it's not a commercial 3D printer, but it's great for prototyping and it doesn't cost£10k... In fact, it can make most of the parts necessary to clone itself! It's an ongoing project at Bath University and they are looking at developing new "print heads" for it to enable it to build other things, like circuit boards.
If anyone has any other fun (and relatively cheap!) projects to suggest I'd love to hear about them.
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