Movement and Simple Machines

Kindergarten through 2nd grades has been investigating movement and simple machines. Beginning with the study of wind, students created pinwheels to understand how the warm spring winds transport certain types of seeds. Furthering our investigation of wind we created a wind tunnel using a box fan and tubing. Students then created a variety of objects out of paper to see how long their paper design could hover in the wind tunnel. We then began a series of design recipes beginning with rocket ships powered by the force of one’s breath and climbing robots that defied gravity using straws as as guides and string to move the robots up and down. Finishing out the quarter students participated in challenges like designing pom pom paper plate maze games and recently second grade made balloon powered paper airplanes.

Climbing Robots Video

Rocket Ships Video