2AF 2013 | Lego Robotics at Gordon East Public School

Dear Bloggers,

1/2S and the rest of Year 2 investigated balance in their classes last week. They built a see-saw which is a first order lever. We identified the pivot, effort and load. Initially the students used the large lego from Early simple Machines to create their see-saw and create balance with equal effort and laod weights an equal distance from the pivot. Students were then challenged to create balance where the load was 3 times heavier than the effort without adding extra effort.

The Alexandra and Claudia were amongst the first to solve the problem. They moved the heavy load in closer to the pivot (reduced the load arm) for partial success but also elongated the see saw on the other side and moved the effort even further out. Balance was achieved. Well done girls that was a very impressive solution to the challenge. The students then used the smaller lego from the Simple Machine Kits to translate their design into a smaller format using many new pieces.

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Year 2 made a spinning top launcher whilst investigating gears. The picture below shows the basic design brief.

The students made a double sided spinning top that could be launched using the small blue gear or the medium sized red gear. They experimented to see the differences.

They discovered that using the small blue on the top with the large yellow gear on the launcher spun the top the fastest. This is a gearing up setup where a large drive gear turns a small driven or follower gear.

That was just the beginning. The students had to design and make a non hand held launcher, launch several tops at one time, investigate what made the top stable and make the design more robust. This is what they came up with.