We Provide STEM Education for Kids!
Today we built the Crane and learned a bit more about the block and tackle which we had covered in previous lessons. The kids were determined to lift as much as they could today. Next week we will be building objects that the students designed in lego digital designer. Please help the students clean up after class.
Today we built the Dragster, which reinforces the concepts that we learned from the Flywheeler. The children had fun with their Dragsters today and raced them. Next week we will have a free build. Please help the children to clean up after class is over.
Today we started the kids on Lego Digital Designer (LDD) a 3D Computer Aided Design program that allows kids to design lego sets without having to purchase lego directly. The students initially had some problems locating the parts however they quickly started to grow accustomed to the menus and as it is their first time working with the program it will take time to get accustomed to it.
Next week we are building a crane
Today the children built fishing rods to hook various “fish” that were built from lego as well participating in a certain challenge to lift a heavier fish. The principles behind the fishing rod include ratchets,winches, and pulleys. However one of the kids built a block and tackle, a type of pulley that multiplies the force used to lift an object so I took the time to explain what it was and the advantages it has over a regular pulley system. The students enjoyed the activity and had fun attempting to grab the fish.
Next Friday (March 2nd) will be a free building class (I think)
The last and the most exciting section of the pneumatic system is the robot arm model. Two students worked as a group to build a robot arm, which composes pneumatic components including three cylinders, three air valves, one air tank, one manometer and one air pumps. Due to the students had already gained good understandings of all these pneumatic components in previous sections, they all finished the robot arm pretty smoothly.
The STEM information behind this section is also the application of pneumatic systems as well as the cylinder piston rod force output calculation. In this section, the students used three cylinders and three air valves, thus they can control three components of the robot arm to move independently for conducting objects grasping task. After four sections, the students all had good understandings of the pneumatic systems. And had a lot of fun especially in the last three application sections.
The topic of today is to build a screw using the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD). LDD is a freeware computer program produced by the Lego Group. It is available for macOS and Windows. The program allows users to build models using virtual Lego bricks, in a computer-aided design like manner. The usage of the LDD is pretty straightforward, and students get familiar enough with it after some instructions and practice. They were requested to build a screw model in LDD following a step by step booklet. The STEM information behind this section is the computer-aided designs, which is common in industry designs every day. All students got a good practice with LDD, and they were ready for the assignment to design a customized model.
