Summer SAVY 2023 Session 1, Day 3 – Creative Contraptions (Kent)
Day 3: It has been a delight working with the inquiring minds of this group.
We reviewed knowledge garnered this week so far, from discussing motion to kinetic and potential energy, force, friction, and simple machines. We rotated through hands-on centers working with all 6 simple machines. Then demonstrated our expertise to a visiting class by explaining and demonstrating how the simple machines work.
We then looked for examples of compound machines and observed how they combine simple machines to solve a problem or make work easier.
Students then moved into creative problem-solving and planned contraptions using their knowledge of machines. We ended the day by building with different materials.
Questions to ask at dinnertime:
- How can a hammer be used as a lever? (They hammered nails into a board to demonstrate how the nail is a wedge and then used the claw end of the hammer to lever the nail out of the wood.)
- Which simple machine did you demonstrate to the visiting class?
- Which simple machines did you combine in your plan for a contraption?
Dr. Kent
A few photos from the day:
