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. |
