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Kinetic Machines
| Item #: | 038227 |
|---|---|
| Grades: | 1-8 |
Product Description:
Explore kinetic properties with five different projects: a race car, a catapult, a motorcycle launcher, a wind mobile, and a balancing dragonfly. Kit includes 108 building pieces and an instruction booklet.
Publisher Description:
Make five awesome machines and learn about the physics of force, motion, and energy. Construct a rubber band-powered race car that zooms across the floor. Build a catapult and launch objects through the air. Set up a launching device that propels a motorcycle across the floor at the push of a lever. Build a balancing dragonfly model and a weathervane to experiment with forces. A 28-page manual guides your model building and experiments with step-by-step illustrated instructions.
A learning and playing experience rolled into one, these kits are a fun way to discover and comprehend basic engineering principles. Often the ideas behind why machines work are difficult to explain and understand. That's where these kits can help. By giving children a hands-on building experience while explaining the concepts behind why their contraptions work, understanding things such as kinetic energy, how force is transmitted, and how hydraulics work becomes not only easier but also more engrained into the brain. In each kit, a specific theme is explored, such as gears and transmissions. The child builds 5 - 10 machines that demonstrate each theme and an explanation is given as to how the machines work. Sometimes, concepts are explored in a more experimental way - for instance, in a discussion of how gears transmit force, children twist differently sized gears together to see how that effects the speed of rotation. Each contraption has exploded-view picture directions which are step-by-step and show how each piece fits together. However, younger children may still need adult assistance with some of the more complex projects. - Janine
