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This week we built the Power Hammer in order to understand the principles of Friction as well as Potential Energy. The students seemed to have enjoyed the activity despite a few mix ups. In the next class we will be building a car that’s powered by a flywheel. All the students are well behaved.
This week we built the Walker in order to understand the principles of Levers and learn a bit about why walking can be useful. The students seemed to have enjoyed the activity however not many of them were able to finish on time due to the complex nature of the walker itself, I advise certain students to do less talking and more building. In the next class we will be building a pulley system that will move a cart up a ramp. I ask that the parents help with cleanup as a few pieces were found to be lying around after class.
The topic of today is the Walker. The students built a big cricket (a legged robot) to learn the basic knowledge of mechanical balance and friction. The legged robot is comprised of four legs with a wheel at each end, it can walk power by the motor. The motor axis motions are transferred by a worm gear, and then to the legs. The STEM information behind this section is the basic mechanical mechanism and concepts including the worm gear, friction and balance. All students finished the model and conducted tests by changing the legs’ length to compare the walking speed and balance. They competed with each other and had a lot of fun.
I apologise for the late Classminutes as there were some technical difficulties on my end.
Last class the students built a Windmill in order to learn the principles of wind energy and the effect of surface area on the power output. The students were able to finish all the models on time, some did need help however, and help cleaning up was much appreciated. Avery is very adept at group work however some groups are a bit difficult to make work. Yuan appears to be very good with the kits and demonstrates an good understanding of the material. The students seemed to like the Windmill alot to the point where the fan providing the wind was overcrowded.
On friday the 26th we will be building the Walker.
Apologies for the late response.
Il Ho Cho
I apologise for the late Classminutes as there were some technical difficulties on my end.
Last class the students built a beam balance in order to measure and compare various loads. The students were able to finish all the models on time and help cleaning up was much appreciated. Lukas and Ryan are both fast builders and Selina has an eye for precision. The students seemed to like the balance alot and they found it fun to put various objects on the balance for their own experimentation.
On friday the 26th we will be building the Power Hammer.
Apologies for the late response.
Il Ho Cho
The hammer turned out to be a fun project. Although this class was more difficult than the previous classes, everyone was able to finish their work and fully understand what they were working on. The kids also worked on their class assignments and did the experiments at the end of the class. We really do understand that the classes are extremely fun and entertaining, but we ask the children to make sure their work is done before 8 o’clock so they still have enough time for putting their pieces in their boxes before the class is finished. Next week the kids will be working on The Sweeper which is another interesting project.
The theme of today is the wind turbine. The wind turbine model transferred the wind energy generated by a fan to electrical energy stored in the power meter. The experiment is a very good mimic to the real wind turbines used in real world. The students finished the model building part quickly, and then they all conducted and finished the experiment. During which I explained the STEM information, which is the power equals to voltage multiplies current. All students finished the experiments and filled the lab sheets. They love the challenging project.
The balance was an interesting project which gave the kids a chance to make an applicable tool and turn the classroom into a laboratory. They figured out the framework pretty quickly and at the end of the class were given an experiment. The experiment not only meant more playtime, but also meant practicing more of the concept they were experimenting with (concepts such as weight, mathematical equality, and simple Newtonian mechanics). Although the second class was a bit more challenging than the first, I was really happy to see that all of the kids finished their works in time. I will look forward to our class next week where we will be working with the Hammer.
The topic of today is the windmill. The students built a windmill to learn the energy conversions between wild energy and rotational energy by means of blades. Windmills were used to mill grain, pump water in the history, but the majority of modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, or wind pumps used to pump water. In the class, we used a weight as water to mimic the pumping water process. The STEM information behind this section is the energy transformation as well as force and motion concepts. All students finished the model and conducted tests with a different level, they enjoyed the class.
Phase III is the highest level of class in Play2Learn Education Lego Challenge Program. In the next 8 weeks, different energy form transformations will be discussed including energy experiments between kinematic energy and potential energy, electrical energy and kinematic energy, heat (light) energy and electrical energy.
The first class was to build a hand generator that transfers kinematic energy to electrical energy. The kinematic energy is generated by the students’ hand. The generated energy was stored in the power meter. In the first class, the basic skills to use the power meter and motors were explained. The section was intense because the students need to learn the principle model knowledge and finish the hand generator model building. However, after the first class, they gained a good understanding of the power meter and motors which laid a solid ground for the following classes.
