Tom’s Throwback Thursday — Furbys

I never had a Furby growing up (boo hoo, I know right). Perhaps my parents had heard the rumours that Furbys would teach me and my siblings swear words or perhaps they just thought they were a fad that we would get bored of after a week or so.

Years later, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that I didn’t grow up with Furbys, I was pretty excited about the idea of taking one apart and having a good look inside. That’s exactly what’s going on in today’s video so buckle up and enjoy our most nightmare-inducing Throwback Thursday yet.

WHAT’S INSIDE A FURBY?

I chose this video for a few reasons:

• I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of How It’s Made. It’s. So. Good.
• It’s a great thing to try at home if you’ve got any old toys or broken electrical appliances. If it’s too broken or rubbish to donate, take it apart instead!
• If you’ve had a go at taking toys apart, why not put them back together and make something totally new? (awesome guide from our friends at the Exploratorium).
• Electricity is the coolest bit of science (don’t @ me, space fans).
• I’m in this video so obviously I think it’s great.

Safety note — you might want to wear gloves and goggles if you’re taking apart something electrical. Remove any batteries before starting and NEVER take apart anything that is plugged into the mains.

Looking to incorporate this into a home lesson? Our Education Manager Mark has shared the top curriculum links and some ideas for this activity! 👇

Key Stage 1:

• Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made
• Identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, and rock
• Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses

Key Stage 2:

• Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials
• Recognise that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect.

Key Stage 3:

• simple machines give bigger force but at the expense of smaller movement (and vice versa): product of force and displacement unchanged
• other processes that involve energy transfer: changing motion, dropping an object, completing an electrical circuit, stretching a spring, metabolism of food, burning fuels
• using physical processes and mechanisms, rather than energy, to explain the intermediate steps that bring about such changes

Key Stage 4:

• drawing circuit diagrams; exploring equivalent resistance for resistors in series
• exploring current, resistance and voltage relationships for different circuit elements; including their graphical representations