You will need
- Lots of Wooden tongue depressors!
- The size needed is 150 x 17×1. 6 mm (the shorter sticks are harder to work with)
1. Place two sticks flat on the floor parallel to one another, as seen above.
2. Place two new sticks over the sticks in step 1 to form a ‘#’ symbol, making sure that the sticks are correctly woven together. See the photo above for reference.
3. Weave a new stick between the three points shown in the photo above. Where there is a red marking, the new popsicle stick should go under. Where there is a blue making, the popsicle stick should go over. See the photo above for reference.
After this stick is in place, be sure to hold down your cobra weave, if you let go, the chain reaction will be triggered and you will have to start again!
4. Weave another stick between the points marked below, again where there is a red marking, the new popsicle stick should go under and where there is a blue marking, the popsicle stick should go over the existing stick. See the photo above.
5. Continue this weave on the opposite side of the chain. See the photos below.
6. Keep repeating steps 4 and 5 until you have reached your desired length.
Hint: Have some books or something heavy to place over the cobra weave as you go along. It will help you recover from an accidental release!
Once the chain has reached the desired length, ‘lock it off’ by weaving a popsicle stick, through the points shown below. Note that if the popsicle stick is being pushed down, you want to weave the new popsicle stick under it, and if the popsicle stick is being pushed up you want to weave the new popsicle stick over it
This part can be challenging, get help if needed!
When ready, remove the final stick and watch what happens!
Go further – buy 4 x student activity sheets as extension worksheets.
This student science booklet has been created by experienced science educators from the Fizzics Education team.
Use these student worksheets as blackline masters for your science class!
Get the Unit of Work on Forces here!
- Push, pull
- Friction & spin!
From inertia to centripetal force, this unit covers many concepts about Newton’s Laws!
Includes cross-curricular teaching ideas, student quizzes, a sample marking rubric, scope & sequences & more
School science visits since 2004!
– Curriculum-linked & award-winning incursions.
– Over 40 primary & high school programs to choose from.
– Designed by experienced educators.
– Over 2 million students reached.
– Face to face incursions & online programs available.
– Early learning centre visits too!
Online courses for teachers & parents
– Help students learn how science really works
What is happening?
The cobra weave chain reaction demonstrates the conversion between stored potential energy to kinetic energy. When the sticks are weaved together it creates potential energy due to the tension within each stick. When one end of the sticks is released, the potential energy is released and converted into kinetic energy. The moving stick then slips out of the chain, releasing even more stored potential energy from the adjacent sticks. This sequence continues until the chain ends or is broken.
Classroom activity sheets for this experiment
Create, reflect & extend!
Want to try a different weave?
Check out the Bow Tie weave here!
Exploring Energy
Years 3 to 6
Maximum 30 students
School science workshop (NSW & VIC)
60 minutes
Online Class Available
STEM Full Day Accelerator - Primary
Designed from real classroom experiences, this modular day helps you create consistently effective science learning that directly address the new curriculum with easily accessible and cost-effective materials.
Hands-on Kids Science Party
>20 hands on science experiments
Gigantic bubbles
Slime making
Professional science show
From $395 inc. GST
Comments