Welcome to smashing science
June 15th
Today in class each student was challenged to the task of designing and building a car that could travel three meters down a ramp. Students were given supplies consisting of wheels, different sized popsicle sticks, glue, markers, straws, scissors, construction paper, and wooden skewers. They were also limited in using only 20 popsicle sticks on their cars. Students had the majority of the day to design and create their cars and at the end we put them to the test. Not all cars passed, but students learned much about being creative, engineering simple cars, working towards a goal, and how to try again if their car was unsuccessful the first attempt. Overall the students learned many valuable skills and had a great time putting their creations to the test and reworking them if their first try did not make it to the finish line.
Also Happy Birthday to Ethan and thank you for bringing birthday snacks to share!
June 16th
Today we started the day by learning about the physics of car crashes to finish out the lesson from the previous day. Afterwards we designed a working helicopter from popsicle sticks, rubber bands, propellers and card stock paper. Learning from this design, we applied the motion of helicopter propellers to make a car that only traveled with a propeller. All in all, it was a good day!
June 17th
Today we took engineering to the next level, literally! Students were tasked with building a tower from popsicle sticks that was over 12 inches tall that could support their own body weight. Not all towers were as tall as we planned, and we struggled early but everyone came up with their own unique design. All towers were crushed, but it was a very fun time!
June 18th and 19th
Thursday and Friday ended out the week dedicated to rockets! Thursday during the extended day we made model rockets from a company called ESTES. Our rockets averaged 1000 feet up into the air. Friday we made rockets with slingshots and then tried our skills crafting our own bow and arrows. Great way to end the week.
June 22nd
Today day was a day of seige warfare! In the smashing science lab we designed and constructed catapults and other medevil seige weapons.
June 23rd
This morning we spent some time in the computer lab working on computer simulations reinforcing information that we have learned the past few days. Students worked on labs dealing with projectile motion, balancing forces, and making skate parks with potential and kinetic energy. Afterwards, we started our tornado tower project. We had to design and build a tower that would withstand winds of 15 mph and support weight. Some of our towers could withstand winds of over 25 mph and 30 lbs!
June 23rd and 24th
Today we started our biggest project of the year, marble roller coasters! With a small break to watch the Shakespeare Play and visit Lego Robotics, we have been hard at work designing and constructing rollercoasters. Come in during open house tonight from 5-7 to check them out. All are welcome
Friday June 26th
On our last day or project SEEK I just wanted to say a giant thank you for all the fun times we had this year. Even though it is a short time, we had a lot of fun!
For those of you who are wondering where some of the classroom ideas came from, you can visit the link below for more summer ideas
http://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Based-Engineering-for-Kids/
For those of you who are wondering where some of the classroom ideas came from, you can visit the link below for more summer ideas
http://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Based-Engineering-for-Kids/