FIRST GRADE l Engineering Design Process l Aerodynamics
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Lab Happenings
BIG UNDERSTANDINGS
Inquiry Questions
What do engineers do? How can I learn how to think like an engineer? How can I learn how to work like an engineer? How does nature inspire technology? How do birds and airplanes fly?
Literacy Connections
Challenges and Collaboration
Exploratories and Investigations
Ask Your Engineer!
How does lift happen?
Were you able to send a snack to a friend across the classroom using a pulley system? Can we try it here? What materials do we need?
Did you design a boat or a trap for Max? How did it work?
Air is invisible and yet we know it is everywhere? How do we see evidence of air? (leaves rustling, hair blowing, bubbles heading east,...) Why is air important? What is air made up of? (molecules)
What would the world be like without gravity? What is friction? Where is friction? How can it be helpful?
What are the forces of motion used to brush your hair? Where is the push? Where is the pull? Why does your hair not stand up like a tree? What is pulling it down?
What do engineers do? How can I learn how to think like an engineer? How can I learn how to work like an engineer? How does nature inspire technology? How do birds and airplanes fly?
Literacy Connections
- The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch by Ronda Armitage
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- I Face the Wind by Vicki Cobb
- Anything is Possible by Giulia Belloni
- 21 Elephants by April Jones
Challenges and Collaboration
- Mrs. Grinling from the Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch is our new client! How can we help her with those pesky seagulls and deliver the lunch safe and sound to Mr. Grinling?
- Max from Where the Wild Things Are has hired us to design a safe and friendly Wild Thing trap and a new air powered boat to get back home!
- We read Anything is Possible which inspired our first drafts and test flights of our very own straw-based flying machines.
- Design and build multiple drafts of a bridge that can hold "21 somethings." Present your work to the community.
Exploratories and Investigations
- We have spent a couple of classes exploring lift and Bernoulli's principle. We have designed our own wings and tested them in our wind tunnel like the engineers at Boeing. We have made models using found objects in the classroom. And of course, we continue to make various flying machines! Please come in and check out our Flight School Hangar!
- This week was all about rockets! We designed our own Puff Rockets and tested to see haw far they would travel.
- To explore the properties of air, we are making windsocks and learning how to use the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.
- This week, our focus was being pulled by gravity! We made detailed diagrams of a gravity demonstration and then worked with a partner to make careful observations about falling objects in the "Great Gravity Race!"
- Our study of flight has begun. We checked out some of our mighty summer olympians to hunt for great examples of motion. What was moving? How did it move? What kind of force was needed? We continued our investigation by moving boxes of books, moving different kinds of balls with straws, and blowing bubbles. Ultimately, we observed and played with the forces of push, pull, and lift in many different ways.
Ask Your Engineer!
How does lift happen?
Were you able to send a snack to a friend across the classroom using a pulley system? Can we try it here? What materials do we need?
Did you design a boat or a trap for Max? How did it work?
Air is invisible and yet we know it is everywhere? How do we see evidence of air? (leaves rustling, hair blowing, bubbles heading east,...) Why is air important? What is air made up of? (molecules)
What would the world be like without gravity? What is friction? Where is friction? How can it be helpful?
What are the forces of motion used to brush your hair? Where is the push? Where is the pull? Why does your hair not stand up like a tree? What is pulling it down?
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Can You Help?
Folks often ask me, "How can I help?" If you are interested in supporting the Engineering Lab through donating your time or materials, please shoot me an email ([email protected]). As our projects get fleshed out, I'll also post a wish list. In the meantime, if you're looking to donate, we always need toilet paper rolls, sharpies, and masking tape. LOTS AND LOTS OF MASKING TAPE. Thanks!
Folks often ask me, "How can I help?" If you are interested in supporting the Engineering Lab through donating your time or materials, please shoot me an email ([email protected]). As our projects get fleshed out, I'll also post a wish list. In the meantime, if you're looking to donate, we always need toilet paper rolls, sharpies, and masking tape. LOTS AND LOTS OF MASKING TAPE. Thanks!