Give them some string…
What can creative kids do with a piece of string tied across a workshop or classroom?
Give them access to some pulleys, electric motors, and other sundry parts and they can create some interesting things.
If you have time, have kids start by making Balancing Bobs, figures that can stand on one or two (nail) legs on the string.
They can give their "Bobs," unique names and even write stories about them.
Here, Bob is made of cardboard. We often use wine corks. Stiff wire (comes on small spools at hardware stores)
can work instead of the dowels and kids can scrounge for weights (rocks?).
For all these activities, you need to tie the string very taut. Before you tie it, insert one or more
straws or pulleys onto the string so you can mount other vehicles.
Balloon rockets on a string are fun. The challenge is for teams to get their rocket to the far end of the
string. Use either regular (spherical) balloons or elongated balloons (a balloon pump is needed). Of course, watch for reactions to latex.
Next up is pressurized 1-L plastic bottles. Attach a bottle to the straw on the string. With a small drill bit, drill a hole in
the bottle cap. Insert a basketball inflating needle to pressurize the bottle. We wrap the base of the needle in Silly Putty to help hold a seal. With a
bike pump, pressurize the bottle. Release the bottle when you hear air escaping. Around 40 PSI, the seal fails and air starts to escape, but this is enough
pressure to send the bottle 40' or more.
A non-motorized cable car.
|
Kids Invent! news
The Children’s Museum of Jordan, a Master Partner, launched their Kids Invent! camps this summer with one
week of Kids Invent Toys and one week of Kids Create Digital Videos. For their first camps, they asked Kids Invent! to provide an
instructor to lead the camps and train the staff. The camps were received very well, with parents asking when Kids Invent! would be offered again.
...string continued
Most challenging is to have kids make cable cars that run along the stretched string. They can
be non-motorized (as seen in the previous column) or motorized. This is a great challenge and some kids will opt for
simpler models to build. But some will work diligently to make some very creative vehicles. These models were created
by students who had just completed 5th and 6th grades. We supplied inexpensive electric motors (Kelvin.com) and a variety
of wheels and pulleys.
Two motors connected to one pulley, powered and balanced by 9 volt batteries.
The motor drives the pulley with a rubber band belt. A 1-l water bottle provides the weight to balance the cable-rider.
|
