My son has volunteered me to help with his science class next Tuesday, studying levers and forces etc.
He piped up, telling teacher that I was an Engineer and the discussion clearly reached a point where he voluteered me to assist the teacher who said, “Engineering wasn’t really her thing”.

It actually quite a daunting prospect not having done anything remotely like it at all ever.

On the assumption that this is actually going to go ahead, I could do with some preperation and thought a few simple, experiments might help but I need inspriation/examples!

See saw/balance/leverage etc as a starting point but they need to be safe!

BD cubed over 12 theory?

At, least they’ll never ask again…

What about the classic, build the tallest tower out of spaghetti and cellotape that can hold a boiled egg?

could do with being lever and forces based I think.

Build one of these.

Get them to globalize their verticals.
Apparently engineers can’t get enough of that shit 8)

Simple see saw versus different weights? Shows the whole force times distance thing. Very safe. A bit boring though.

Bridges.

Of the cantilever variety, made of rulers and pennies.

http://letsdoscience.com/content_pdf/Grade4WheelsLevers.pdf
You can even talk about bikes aswell.

Build a simple container crane model which uses a reel to lift boom up and hang weights off it yntil your thread/wool/wire/fishing line breaks. Interactive as the kids could add the weights in the form if selo taped coins…

What about something with spring balances?

Like, if you hang a 1kg weight on the end it says 1kg, but if you hang it from a 2:1 lever it only shows 0.5kg?

Build a trebuchet. Not a massive one, they’re only 8, you won’t need a long arm to fire them.

Off the children ten pounds each to design a bridge out of spaghetti in ten minutes.

Then take away 5pounds for the lawyers.
Take away 3 for the architects.
Take away 2 for quantity surveyors.

Then as the client change the brief at minute 9.

Withold funds for late deliver.

I take the science club at the school where I teach. We do the towers out of spaghetti and marshmellows, another is column strength using A4 paper to make the columns. Other ones include protecting an egg from breaking from a fall. I can send you PDF’s of the various activities if you like.

Having done this for a living once upon a time. Keep it simple and fun. I did a session over four weeks, two hours a week, and got the little blighters to drawer, sketch, think and talk about engineering. We ended up building little cotton bobbin motors, pencils and rubber bands.
Possible pitfalls, depending on the school some of the language engineers see as normal will baffle the kids and the teacher alike. Don’t expect them to write loads. They will use centimetres, grrrr. They will, depending on the school or the teacher be cheeky and look for your weaknesses. Don’t give any opportunity for them to get a head of steam.
Pictures paint a thousand words, PowerPoint is great for starting conversations. Have a starting point, they know little or nothing and a point where you’d like them to be by the end.
Again keep it simple, stamp on discipline, have something they take away from the session (if it’s something they’ve made it will be with them for longer).
Good luck

stevego, that would be great.
claytonmdc 70 AT btinternet DOT com

They will use centimetres, grrrr

I had an engineer tell me to produce a road long section set out in millimeters.

I asked him if he was going to tell the client that the total track length was many millions of millimeters long.

I also worked with a graduate who insisted in cms.

Liking the idea of bobbin motors, but where do you get bobbins from now!

Jv, I hear you but all things have their place, centimetres place is in the bin.!

I’m sure if you google it you’ll find lots of child friendly experiments…

But to me levers are all about making work easier. Forces in terms of levers are easiest to understand (and “measure” in terms of weights).

For something relatively simple to set up – get a wooden broom handle drill it at various lengths, to give you different fulcrums. Make a stand that lets you set up the broom handle at different “off sets” from the central fulcrum point. Then you can hang different sized bottles of water off each end to “balance it”. You could add “excitement” by doing it outside with water balloons!

If you really want to impress then you could probably set up something where a group of 9 year olds lift a car with a scaffolding pole – but I expect this would be a H&S headache!

What about one of those battery trains that run round inside a coiled wire for magnetic force magnetic train or the homopolar motor on the same link.

http://www-tc.pbskids.org/designsquad/pdf/parentseducators/DS_Act_Guide_complete.pdf

Useful ideas there. But more importantly is the “design process” part.

http://www.starfisheducation.com/2013/06/The-Brown-Bag-STEM-Challenges.html?m=1 I’ve used these ideas with my classes and they work well.

I would shy away from a straight demo. Kids are far more likely to engage when they have something to investigate.

Not quite engineering but it hits forces. Pretty cool demo anyway.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTY1Kje0yLg[/video]

how long have you got? id keep it simple. lifting a kid with pulleys / leaver is always a crowd pleaser

if its a project rubber band powered car is fun

Studying levers and forces…..

A seesaw with a fixed weight on one side and a movable weight on the other side to show that you can either use a heavy weight close to the pivot or a light weight further from the pivot to lift the fixed weight…..?

Bit simple perhaps…?

Block and tackles would also tie into levers and forces.

If they were a bit older I’d say mousetrap cars but there’s some great suggestions above.

Yeah what they all said, Borrow a wee engine stand A frame thing.

Lift a weight/child with a lever
Lifting with pulleys
Bottle car jack to explain pneumatics.
technical lego and gears

Can I come? I love this stuff!!

Nothing to do with water indoors, don’t chance an outdoors water experiment that ends up indoors because of the weather

Bridge structures; rolled up paper, string, sellotape, etc. The premises team will not be your friends if you use dried pasta, glitter, sand, etc in great quantities

Don’t under-estimate how long a project that takes you 10 mins will take 30 children to complete

Get on youtube and watch some old episodes of the great egg race, then grow a big bushy moustache, because no one will believe your a proper engineer if you don’t have a big bushy moustache.

slight off piste

have a look at a ram pump (actually invented by [balloon] Montgolfier brothers), it uses water hammer to pump moving water above it’s drop height – and it does actually work.

With a drop of about 3 ft (ie off my garden wall) I could get water in the hose above my house roof.

I used a hosepipe, copper pipe, brass one way (plumbing)valve and a 2L plastic bottle and some scrap,

also maybe throw in a gyroscope somehow – clever little things

*also have you got a block and tackle

There’s some info here:

Institute of Civil Engineers Educational Resources

Also, hard to beat spaghetti and marshmallow towers, or paper bridges.

Build a trebuchet. Not a massive one, they’re only 8, you won’t need a long arm to fire them.

I (mechanical engineer!) once got dragged in to run a session for my Mum’s class of 5 year-olds. The school had bought/been given a load of Technic Lego but none of the teachers had any clue what to do with it.

I did a wee session on Trebuchets, making little Lego ones. Went really well, I was amazed how well a group of 5 year-olds got it. Each group managed to build one after a demo and we had a wee contest to see who could launch a rubber across a classroom the furthest.

To make it a bit more complex for older kids, you could make a double-linked lever version.

Open with – “Every couple has its moment in a field.”

[pause for laughter]

Dont tell or teach – get them to do a short investigation.

E.g. – a newspaper and 10 paperclips per group, they have to design and plan how they will build tallest tower. Then build it – has to be free standing.

Give each team packet of pasta and marshmallows. The challenge is to make the strongest structure they can to support a weight (use books to see which group can build it strongest) A few pics of bridges/ triangulation and you are away.

Take in some old junk and deconstruct it – take a few hoovers from the tip and get each group to strip them down.

Build ‘stomp’ rockets – milk bottle, short hose and short section of copper pipe – the ‘rockets’ are just A4 paper and some tape – leave them to sort out whether a long dart, a heavy one, a light one, fins etc works best. You need a lot of pop or milk bottles – they will damage them.

Set them a lego building challenge?

DONT teach them – you are not a teacher! Get them ‘wowed’ and ‘hooked’ on the fact that engineering is massive problem solving and fascinating science and maths in action…

And if you are feeling bold, have a look at this site for some PROPER engineering education. I am currently trying to raise funding for a Scotland Tinkering School….

http://www.tinkeringschool.com/

Bottle rocket surely? Best example of Newton’s 3rd law IMHO.

Get them to stick fins on and make a wee payload bay on the nose (with a duct tape rim) so you can send stuff up. My 2 y/o and I were sending rubber ducks into space at the weekend.

Need:

* Drinks bottles
* Corks (rubber ones work best I think)
* track pump
* needly attachement thing for blowing up footballs
* launching stick (to keep it pointed at the sky)
* duct tape

Loads of good videos to explain it. Use a slow mo camera to show whats happening once you’ve done a few launches. Talk about Newton’s law. Give other examples as well.

An easy demo to start with on levers might be to ask which up is it easier to balance a hammer?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K14WY18Oic[/video]
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x94rZgnq1Fc[/video]

Methane rocket on a fishing line across the room – great fun.

Why not bring in a bike and explain stuff using that? Suspension, linkages, wheels to help movement – link it to larger stuff e.g. meg structures which use the same principles.

Spaghetti / marshmallows always works.

For added ‘change of brief’ realism, don’t thell them they’ll have to carry their model to the front of the room to demo it.