Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Conway, thank you for joining me for your Design and technology lesson today.

So today's lesson outcome is, I can analyze familiar objects that use air to make them work.

And these are our keywords for today.

We have expand, inflate, and deflate.

I'll go through each one of these as we work through the lesson.

So the first thing we're going to look at is moving air.

Now, air is all around us, all the time, it's an invisible mix of gases that we breathe.

Now, what else do we use air for, though? Have a little think about that, and feel free to pause the video just to take a moment, to have a think about your answer.

Now, we use natural moving air, or wind for lots of things, so not just breathing, did you get any other ideas? Now, the big one that I always think of is to dry my washing and I love drying my washing outside, it's really good for the planet to do it, instead of using a tumble dryer and it gets that nice, fresh smell on my clothes, to dry really quickly, so we can use air, moving air to dry our washing.

It can also be used to make electricity, and you may have seen these big wind turbines out in the fields as you're driving around with your family.

And also, it can be used to sail a boat as well.

And again, you might have seen some sailboats when you've been at the seaside one day.

Can you think of any other things that are moved by wind as well? There might be some others that we haven't mentioned.

Again, pause the video here if you'd like to just take a moment to have a think bout that.

So, we also use air in pumps, and pumps can squeeze air into some products, and you might have thought of some of these, such as bicycle tires.

So if you've ever gone to grab your bike to go for a bike ride and the tire's really flat, you along with the help of someone else at home, maybe your parents, you might have thought, "Actually, we need to actually pump up these tires," and you get a bicycle pump to push and squeeze air into that tire.

Also, footballs as well, you can again, use a pump to squeeze air into that, and make it inflate, and bouncy castles as well, always lots of fun, and again, these need air squeezed into them from a pump.

I've got a standup paddle board, and actually, I need to pump that up as well, and again, I squeeze air into that, to make that really, really nice and sturdy for me to actually paddle on.

Have you got any other examples that you can think of that you pump up at home as well? Now, what the air is doing there, and I mentioned the word before, is it's inflating the product, and that makes it expand.

Have you ever seen anything being inflated? Have a little think, is there anything else other than what we've mentioned? So, some products can be inflated by blowing air in from your lungs, such as balloons, so this is the easiest one to always think of when I kind of explain this blowing air in using your lungs to do so.

Also, bubble wands as well, so bubble wands work from you blowing into that bubble wand, and that expands the bubble.

And also, swimming aids, now you might be lucky enough to have a pump to blow the swimming aid, but otherwise, you might actually just have to do that by blowing into it, using all the air from your lungs, and that can be quite hard work.

Now, we do this, and we suck the air in, and then blow it into the product.

Just have a go at that now.

So just have a go sucking in, (inhaling deeply) (exhaling deeply) I'm blowing out the air, and that's how we actually blow up some of these products, and inflate them using our lungs.

Right, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that then.

What does the word inflate mean? Is it A, to release air, B, to fill with air, or C, moved by air? Just pause the video here to have a think about your answer.

And the correct answer, it was B, to fill with air, so to inflate is to fill with air.

Well done if you got that right.

Now, some products, such as fans, hairdryers, and leaf blowers, actually make air move.

So here we've got an example of a fan, you might have that in the hotter months in your house, just to keep you nice and cool, a hairdryer, and also, a leaf blower, and you might have one of these at home, or you might have seen people using them on your streets, or around your local town or city or village.

Now what they do is they blow out cold or warm air to help keep us cool, or to dry our hair, or to move things, such as the leaves when using the leaf blower.

Now, these pupils have thought of some products that use air to work.

Now, Alex has come up with the idea of a kite.

"So a kite uses air.

They only work on windy days, so they must need moving air." Have a little think about if you've ever used a kite, was it pretty really windy that day when you did? Did it go up really, really high? Well, that's because of that windy air to help keep that lifted.

Laura has come up the idea of, "My uncle plays the trumpet and I know he has to blow hard into the mouthpiece to make it work." This is a great example of using moving air to actually work.

And this is her uncle blowing into it.

So using the air from his lungs to make a sound in that trumpet.

There are other instruments that use air as well.

Right, quick check for understanding then, True or False, all products that use air to work use wind, is that True or False? Pause the video here, just to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was False, and that's because some products use the wind to make them work, but some products use air from pumps or from our lungs, like that trumpet example that Laura just gave us.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, it's gonna be over to you now to have a go at a task.

I'd like you to discuss a time that you, or someone else, used air to make something move or work.

And I'd like you to think about these questions as you do that.

Where did the air come from? Was it through a pump, or was it coming from the lungs of somebody, or was it from the wind? Where did the air need to go to as well? And what did the air do to the product? How did it change that product? Did it make it move, did it make it inflate, what was the air actually doing to that product? And was the air released? And by released, I mean the air is let out, so it's let out from that product.

Right, have a little go at this task, remember, you're discussing this with someone else and thinking about each one of those questions as part of your discussion.

Okay, pause the video here to have a go at this task.

Okay, how did you get on? Hopefully, you enjoyed discussing those different examples with the people in your class.

Let's look at some examples that Lucas and Laura have given us as part of their discussions then.

So these pupils discussed a time that they saw air being used to make something move or work.

And Lucas has said this, "I have an air bed for camping that I have to inflate using a foot pump." So this is a really good example, and one that I do a lot 'cause I like doing a lot of camping, so an air bed when it needs to be actually pumped up, it needs to be inflated.

Now, Laura has given us a different example.

"The teacher blows into his whistle to make a loud noise and get our attention." That's a great example from Laura there, and a completely different way of actually using air in a product to make it work.

So the example Laura has given us, the air is being blown into from the lungs of somebody.

Whereas Lucas's example, the actual product is being inflated using a pump, so it's squeezing the air into that air bed.

Right, what did you come up with? I hope you had some really interesting conversations and lots of different examples there.

Okay, next, we're gonna look at products that you use air.

So, have a little think about these pictures in front of us, what do these things have in common? Pause the video, just to think about that question.

They all need air to work, well done if you got that right.

But they don't use air in the same way, so they all use it in a slightly different way.

Have a quick look at them, have a little think about what different ways those could be.

Now we've already seen that some products have air squeezed inside them to change their size or their shape, such as balloons.

Some products use moving air to make them move, such as the example of the little paper windmill there.

And some products make air move, so a fan, actually makes the air around the fan move to help cool us down.

Now, when air is forced into a balloon, either from your lungs or from a pump, it inflates, and if you remember, inflates means to fill with air, and the balloon then expands, and expands means for it to get bigger.

The balloon can expand because it is made from a really nice stretchy material, so that balloon can actually get bigger without that material breaking.

And you can do that, as I said, with a hand pump like in the picture, or we can blow into it using our lungs.

Now, when the air is released, the balloon deflates, and if you've ever done that, and you've actually released it, it goes whizzing around the room as it's deflating, doesn't it? So the balloon deflates, and then shrinks back to its original size and shape.

Now, if too much air is squeezed inside the balloon, and the material really cannot stretch any further, the balloon will then pop.

So we even though the material is nice and stretchy, there is a certain point where it won't be able to stretch anymore, and you've actually blown too much air into it and it pops.

And again, that's probably happened to you at some point or somebody that you know.

Okay, quick check for understanding on that then.

What can happen to a balloon if too much air is squeezed inside of it? A, nothing at all.

B, it will shrink, or C it will pop.

Pause the video here, just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer, it will pop, well done if you've got that right.

So if you squeeze too much air into a balloon, it will eventually pop, so the answer was C.

Now bicycle tires are inflated in the same way, remember to inflate, is too fill it with air, and it eventually expands.

Now there is a tube, similar to a balloon, inside the tire, which can be inflated using air from a pump.

And the tube, which is called an inner tube, expands and fills the tire.

So if you can see in the little diagram, on the diagram on the left, that's a deflated tire, and that inner tube, is actually quite small.

As we push air into that, using the pump, that inner tube expands and fills that gap in the tire.

Now, moving air or wind can make things move.

So an example we have here is a sailboat, and I showed you this example before.

Now this works from the moving air, pushing against the sails.

You could almost say that the sails are like catching the air as such.

Windmills and the pinwheel there, also work in a very similar way, the moving air causes the blades to rotate round, and some products, such as fans and hairdryers, make the air move.

Now, what they do, is they suck the air in, and push it out, a bit like we do with our lungs, really.

Now sometimes the air is heated up before it is pushed out, so that we can feel warmer, such as the example with a hairdryer.

Now, have you ever used a product that blew out air? How did it feel? Is that a hairdryer or is it a fan? Have a little think about that, how did that actually feel as you used it? Again, pause the video here, just to take a moment to think about those questions.

Okay, quick check for understanding again, then.

I'd like you to match the products to the way that they use air.

So you're going to match the products that are, A hairdryer, B, football, and C windmill, and you're going to match them up with either 1, 2, and 3.

1 is inflated with air, 2 is moved by moving air, and 3 is it blows out air.

Right, pause the video here to have think about your answers, and good luck, Right, let's see how you got on.

So A, hairdryer, blows out air, which was 3, so A is matched with 3.

The football, which was B, is matched with 1, as it is inflated with air, usually using a pump to squeeze that air into the football, which means, of course, C is matching with Number 2, so the windmill is moved by moving air.

Well done if you got all of those right.

Okay, let's look at a couple of more products then.

How did these products use air to work? So we've got an example here of a wind chime, and also a parachute.

Again, pause the video, just have a little think about that question.

Okay, so if we look at the wind chime first, then, now the moving air moves the chimes so that they bang together to make a noise, and I find that to be a really calming, lovely noise that you can hear in gardens, for example.

A parachute works differently, the parachute actually fills with air, which then slows it down as it's falling and lowering to the ground.

Now, these pupils are discussing products they have seen that use air.

Right, so Alex is gonna go first, and Alex has explained, "I have armbands for swimming that are inflated by blowing air into them." So there's example of a swimming aid being used.

Lucas has said, "I help to inflate the balls at football practice using a pump." And Laura has given us another example, "The teacher blows a whistle of playtime, which makes a loud noise," and we've heard that example before.

Really good examples of products that all use air in some way.

Okay, it's going to be over to you now to have a go at another task.

I'd like you to explain how each of these products uses air to work, and I've given you example of a sailboat, and also a balloon.

The next question I'd like you to answer is, do they use air in the same way? And you'll need to just explain that.

Some useful words that may help you to explain are ; squeeze, push, blow, one of our keywords, inflate, and also move.

You don't have to use all of those, they might just help you with your writing.

Okay, pause the video here, to have a go at this task.

So your answer may have included something like this.

"A sailboat uses natural moving air called wind.

The wind pushes against the sails, which moves the boat through the water." "A balloon is filled by air from our lungs, and we squeeze the air in by blowing into it, which makes it inflate, and we tie the balloon to stop the air escaping." Your answer will be slightly different to that, and that's absolutely fine, but just check your answer against those examples and see if you've got the key bits of information in there.

Let's summarize today's lesson, then.

So today, we've been looking at products that use air.

So let's look at some of the key points.

Air is invisible and all around us, and some things need air to move and work.

We can force air to move and use this to make things work.

Blowing up a balloon, for example, involves forcing air from your lungs into the balloon, and the balloon expands and inflates.

Well done for all of your hard work in today's lesson, and thank you so much for joining me, and I'll see you soon.