Wheeling It In
Posted on May 8th, 2020 by Mary Lord
In this open-ended design activity, students in grades 3 to 5 use everyday materials such as water bottles and straws to build small-scale transportation devices that incorporate two simple machines: a wheel and axle, and a lever. They race their vehicles, measuring distance, time and weight; and then calculate speed.
Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Wheeling It In
Tags: bicycle, Engineering Design Process, Geometry, levers, measurement, NGSS aligned activity, Physics, simple machines, transporation, vehicle
Students in grades 1 to 6 follow the engineering design process to build and test a catapult that launches projectiles, such as marshmallow “pumpkins.” They then make changes to improve their launcher’s aim and distance it can hurl the projectile.
In this lesson, students in grades 3 – 12 will explore the engineering design process by building a device that can launch a ping-pong ball high enough for them to catch it.
