Conductive Silver Ink Pen

'Circuit Scribe is a rollerball pen that writes with conductive silver ink. It makes creating circuits as easy as doodling.'

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Bike While You Wash

Design students at Dalian Nationalities University in China have created a washing machine drum that is integrated into the wheel of a bike. This means you can wash your clothes as you cycle!

The extra electricity generated as you cycle can be used to power the display screen or stored for future rides.

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

From ultrafacts.tumblr.com:

William had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him. The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi’s worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.

Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library. Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill. Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: “I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water.

“I thought: ‘That could be a defense against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself’.” When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings. But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people.

“Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy,” he recalls. “They had never seen a windmill before.” [x]

In 2014, William Kamkwamba received his 4 year degree at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where he was a student.

Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm

The Surprising Places We Waste Energy

'In Joe Hanson’s third episode of It’s Okay to Be Smart’s energy series, he explores the surprising places that we can be more energy efficient: Food waste, water waste, fertilizer waste, food transportation, gasoline consumption for powering cars, planes, trains, or ships… the list goes on.' source

This video not only deals with science and the environment, it also features many opportunities to link with maths - namely fractions, percentages and measurement.