Rough Science: Stranded on an island and you build an electric hydrophone

[Admin]

Hey there,

I love growing crystals and I'm fascinated by piezoelectricity. I was inspired at an early age by an episode of Rough Science about building a survival piezo-sound sensor. In that episode, stranded on the island of Zanzibar, the chemist Mike Bullivant produced a Seignette salt crystal (sodium potassium tartrate) from cream of tartar mixed with sodium carbonate. The physicist Jonathan Hare then used it to build a robust microphone, very much in the style of MacGyver.

Unlike when I was a kid, 16 years old and could only watch the show weekly on BBC Friday nights via cable TV, all the seasons are now available to watch on YouTube.

The concept of Rough Science is simple and brilliant: a group of real scientists from different disciplines is dropped off in a remote location each season (an island like Zanzibar or Carriacou, mountains in New Zealand or the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, a desert like Death Valley National Park in California). Their challenge is to solve specific scientific problems using only the minimal resources available on site. The creativity and inventive skill of the scientists consistently lead to astonishing results throughout the many episodes.

The following English Wikipedia entry provides an overview of all the episodes, including details of the experiments featured:
Overview of all the episodes

Generally, all Rough Science episodes are suitable for the classroom. Each is only 30 minutes long and is framed in an engaging way with a short intro and narration. The episodes are very well-suited for high school, especially in bilingual teaching, when watched in the original version with subtitles. This allows students to hear scientific English spoken by scientists from the UK, USA, and Australia.

Students love the exciting, adventurous contexts—whether it's prospecting for gold, photography, or a moon mission, etc. For instance, in this same episode, Mike, from his makeshift chemistry lab, produces silver nitrate from self-made nitric acid and silver, and ammonia from urine, in order to create a mirror using the silver mirror reaction.

Here is the episode from Season 5, "Call of the Wind," on the coast of Zanzibar: