Dear Bloggers,

Year 4 are now becoming very proficient with designing and making complex designs and writing intricate programs. For two lessons they were challenged to build and program a ride or game to go into the GEPS Lego Robotics Theme Park. This was a very broad design brief but it was a platform for our talented young students to showcase what they were really capable of.   Kindergarten and Year 1 students came to visit and it was an absolute joy watching the Year 4s explaining their work to their interested bright eyed spectators.  The photos tell the delightful tale.

 

Thanks for calling by

Jenny Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Here are some 0f the models that our Year 4s made.  The crocodile is especially clever as Daniel built and programmed the tilt controller from the Carousel and applied it to his crocodile.  Well done Daniel!

Dear Bloggers,

Thanks to the amazing generosity of the P and C all students pairs in stages 2 and 3 have their own lego kits which allows us to embark on larger and ongoing projects.  Year 4 teams are also very lucky to also have their own WeDo Resource sets so they have lots more pieces to design and build with.  In this lesson Year 4 built a Carousel carnival ride with a tilt sensor control to determine the speed and direction of the ride.  Along the way the students applied their mathematics as they calculated areas of the bases and calculated the construction costs based on prices of the lego pieces by colour.  Pupils also investigated balance and how changing the length of the load arm affected balance.

 

 

 

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Year 4 were given challenging work today when they were given pictures of a ‘Pull Back Car’ and asked to translate it into a model.  The children had to use their visual literacy, problem solving skills, spatial awareness, team skills, fine motor skills and just plain determination to achieve their desired outcomes.  The secret lay in creating an effective ‘pull back mechanism’ and having a complete gear chain connecting this to the driving axle.  I was so pleased the way the pupils so enthusiastically approached this challenge and showed persistence and tenacity as they carried out a series of design modifications to produce terrific little cars.

 

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Today Year 4 were given more work in their ‘Visual Literacy and Spatial Awareness Challenge’.

Extension challenge:  Students were given a picture of a wind up car taken from many different angles.  Using visual cues only they had to translate the drawing into a real life model.  We did not have all the pieces of Lego in the picture so the pupils had to adapt the Lego we have.

Standard challenge: Students were given  pictures of furniture taken from many different angles. There were chairs and tables tat folded flat and swivel chairs and tables. Using visual cues only they had to translate the drawings into a real life models.  We did not have all the pieces of Lego in the picture so the pupils had to adapt the Lego we have.

 

 

 

Thanks for calling by

 

Mrs Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Year 4 students were given stimulus pictures of simple machines that moved something such as a propellor or fan when the wheels turned.  Pupils had to analyse the drawing to identify the mechanism that created this movement and translate it into their own design.  The challenge then was to build a car with as many moving  pieces powered by the wheel axle/s as possible.

The secret lay in putting a gear onto the axle and connecting that to a crown gear at right angles.  The picture below shows some of the simple yet very effective results the children produced.

The winning team had three moving parts with quite a complex design.

Moving arms, drills, fans, cylinders in car bodies and signs were created.  Here are some photos of these.

 

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

 

Dear Bloggers,

Over the last few lessons Year 4 have followed very detailed building instructions to build a ferris wheel and see-saw.  Last lesson we reflected on these and children analysed what they did and did not like about the designs and how they would change them.  The way the rides worked were examined very closely and interesting design features observed.

Now it was time for the students to apply what they had learnt and create their own ride.  The team pairs brainstormed, discussed, sketched designs and thought abaout the programs in the planning process.

This week in one action filled hour and a quarter session they got their rides up and running.

In 4L some of the highlights were:

A  game where a paper ball was thrown at a wall.  The motion sensor detected the ball when it made contact causing an arm with a person sitting in a box to swing and ‘dunk the person’.

Below is a close up.  This is a simple yet amazingly effective design with lots of potential for more detailed games eg putting a target on the wall and only dunking when the ball hits the target.  Well done boys!

 

 

A ride where a seat was lifted up by a motor powered pulley.  A motion sensor at the top made the pulley stop.

A rotating ride with a jointed arm allowing for a range of motions.

A ride on an animal with a spinning head… very very cute.

Thanks for calling by

Dear Bloggers,

Year 4 embarked upon another major building project as part of the We Do extension kit.  This time a house, with a person on a revolving stand waving from the veranda and an attached see saw, was created.  A large level of team work and organisation was required to collect the pieces and assemble them.  Year 4 are quite adept at writing programs now so there were motion sensor and tilt sensor controls to stop , start,  and change the speed and direction  of the motors.  Appropriate sounds were selected and played at the correct times in the program. Innovation and creativeness abounded.  Some children made birds and attached tilt sensors to their wings while others put motion sensors onto the roof so when a bird landed on the roof the motors were turned on.  Other pupils put 2 people on the verandah with one stationary and the other on the moving platform.  It was very cute when they made the people move together and make a kissing sound with hearts coming up on the display. Well done Year 4 – your growing level of proficiency is exciting and a great platform for higher learning.  The sky is our limit…

 

 

 

 

Thanks for calling by

 

Mrs Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Having an Amusement Park for a class sounds like fun and yes it is….but it is also very hard work.

WeDO Lego Robotics has advanced levels and the ferris wheel builiding and programming was the first of these.  For 2 and half very busy hours the industrious Year 4 pairs built and programmed the ferris wheels – and wow they were WONDERFUL.

 

Thanks for calling by

 

Mrs Garlick