A Whole Lot of STEAM Going On!

6th Grade Science- Building Catapults and Trebuchets

For three days last week, 6th grade science classes came to CLIC to put their physics and engineering knowledge to use engineering and building catapults and then trebuchets.  Building the trebuchets proved to be extremely challenging since there are many factors that go into making the ball catapult forward.  We learned about how trebuchets are first class levers and the fulcrum and exchange of energy and weight is critical in getting the ball to launch forward. The pouch that holds the ball and the angle of of the pin that the sling sits on also became a major challenge.  It is amazing that the children managed to get most of the trebuchets to work since this is really a college project.  The children loved storming the castle in the hall hurling marshmallows, licorice, gumballs over the cardboard castle.  Ms. Strobl and I loved it as much as the children since it was really super challenging but the kids gave it their all! 

Thank you TESPTO for funding this project through the recent THINK BIG! Grant for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) learning in CLIC.

STEAM Club- Engineering Bristle Bots with Eccentric Motors

In STEAM Club last week we began a unit on different types of motors. We built awesomely crazy acting vibrating robots from toothbrushes and eccentric motors.  This is a great lesson to teach about how you can make an ordinary motor eccentric so that it vibrates.  These motors can be found in phones, Fit bits, pagers, electric toothbrushes for example.  They turn the toothbrush heads into robots that twirl and and fly across surfaces in a pogo stick fashion. The children were delighted with their brush bots!