I'd wanted to try these simple robots for a while. Not much is needed...a motor, a couple of wires, a battery, a container and some felt pens. I used these instructions as a guide and got to work with an 8 year old and a 6 year old seeing what we could create.
My knowledge of motors and wires is pretty limited so any of this is out of my comfort zone but, also, it made it true inquiry because I wasn't the keeper of the knowledge. We started with coin cell batteries and it was the 8 year old who showed me to put the wires on opposite sides!
We built the bots and wired them up but they didn't move. We'd put the motors in the centre of the cups, not at the side. Also, the eraser we'd used to make the motor off-centre needed to be bigger/weightier. We fixed those problems. The next issue was that the coin cell batteries drained quickly so we moved onto AA batteries and then, all systems were go...
My knowledge of motors and wires is pretty limited so any of this is out of my comfort zone but, also, it made it true inquiry because I wasn't the keeper of the knowledge. We started with coin cell batteries and it was the 8 year old who showed me to put the wires on opposite sides!
We built the bots and wired them up but they didn't move. We'd put the motors in the centre of the cups, not at the side. Also, the eraser we'd used to make the motor off-centre needed to be bigger/weightier. We fixed those problems. The next issue was that the coin cell batteries drained quickly so we moved onto AA batteries and then, all systems were go...
What followed next were the questions...
Why does his go faster than mine?
What if we made the legs shorter? or longer?
What if we used pencils? or fat pens?
Why does that one go round in circles and the other one doesn't?
Questions which lead to genuine inquiry, experimenting and exploration. The kids were engaged enough to want to explore the answers to those questions. This needed inquisitiveness and perseverance and not as many AA batteries as I expected!
Have a classroom collection of motors that can be used over and over again. I bought mine from Jaycar (NZ$3.90 each : $2.70 each for bundles of 10 or more) and the wire was 30c a metre. The questioning, engagement and fun...priceless.
Also...by setting this up on newsprint on the dining room table we scored a very unique tablecloth:
Why does his go faster than mine?
What if we made the legs shorter? or longer?
What if we used pencils? or fat pens?
Why does that one go round in circles and the other one doesn't?
Questions which lead to genuine inquiry, experimenting and exploration. The kids were engaged enough to want to explore the answers to those questions. This needed inquisitiveness and perseverance and not as many AA batteries as I expected!
Have a classroom collection of motors that can be used over and over again. I bought mine from Jaycar (NZ$3.90 each : $2.70 each for bundles of 10 or more) and the wire was 30c a metre. The questioning, engagement and fun...priceless.
Also...by setting this up on newsprint on the dining room table we scored a very unique tablecloth: