We Provide STEM Education for Kids!
Today we built a pulley system designed to pull a weight up a ramp and learned about mechanical advantage using a block and tackle system. The students seemed to really enjoy playing with the ramp and seeing their models work. Please ask the students to clean up a bit better as we found pieces lying all over the floor.
The topic of today is the Ramp. Ramps have been used since ancient times to help move heavy objects or large quantities of materials from one level to another. Today, automobile transport services use the ramp on their trucks to load multiple vehicles on one transport. In the class, the students built the model ramp and the box frame in order to investigate how angle and wheels affect the needed effort.
Two students built one model as a group, then they conducted experiments by using effort weight to pull their box frame from the bottom of the ramp to the top. They tested their built models on three ramps with different angles, then compared the mechanical efficiency of different ramp systems. The STEM information behind this section is the ramp’s mechanical advantage. All students finished the model and experiments, they enjoyed the class.
The kids have been on a great learning curve lately with all of our previous projects, and yesterday we decided work on a little more challenging design. They took their time to work on The Ramp. Even though the work was more challenging than before, they still enjoyed the process and were able to finish their project. The Ramp allows them to learn about the concepts of weight, force and also to do measurements with different parts. It was a great opportunity for them to learn such physical concepts. Next week we will be working on the Trundle Wheel, which is a mechanical device that lets them measure the length of the surface.
Mr. Amir
