Engineerathon (Wacky Sports Day) Teacher Information 5
Engineerathon Notes: Download your pupil certificates here bbc.co.uk/guides/ z9fc2nb Here are some ideas for further challenge events for your own Wacky Sports Day! These activities explore a range of different forces including friction, air resistance and gravity. You can download certificates here: bbc.co.uk/guides/z9fc2nb. Each activity will take time to do, so you may wish to divide the class into teams, each team focusing on a different challenge. Or you could run your engineering Olympics with a cluster of schools in your area. Remember: Please email your photos to: livelessons@bbc.co.uk If you are sending in any images or videos that feature children, please ensure that you have parental permission, as they may be shown during the Live Lesson and on our website. Engineers love to tinker. Tinkering is thinking with your hands, and learning through doing. It involves problem solving, inventing, making, improving and trying things out. These engineering challenges are designed to give your children lots of opportunities to do just these things: to think with their hands, learning more about forces as they work. We would love to see your fantastic inventions so please email your photographs to livelessons@bbc.co.uk. Your pictures may be included in our Forces Live Lesson. Before sending in your photos please ensure you have parental consent and in the body of the email please state your relationship to the children in the photos. Also if you need to withdraw the images please email livelessons@bbc.co.uk. Also check out our Wacky Sports Day webpage here bbc.co.uk/guides/z9fc2nb There are a range of downloadable and printable assets such as badges, bunting, and participation certificates for you to use in your Wacky Sports Day. 2
Challenge one: Whirling windmills What s the biggest paper windmill you can create that turns in the wind? Look at sail design on boats and real windmills. Your windmill needs to be able to turn freely. You may test your windmills either outside or with a fan. Paper Pencil Skewer Scissors Drawing pin Bead The windmill changes the energy from the wind into mechanical energy. 3
Challenge two: Gently does it What is the minimum amount of resources (in weight) needed to create a parachute and packaging to protect an egg dropped 2m? Try padding around the egg, or put it in a little basket to protect it. Your egg must fall 2m to the ground without breaking. The winner is the person who uses the least amount of materials and still manages to protect the egg. Eggs Any clean materials from your schools recycling box Masking tape Rubber bands Plastic bin bag Hole punch Parachute: When you drop the egg, gravity is pulling the egg to the ground. However the parachute fills with air and air resistance slows its descent down. Packaging: This acts as a crumple zone, absorbing the energy from the crash landing, spreading the energy of impact across a wider surface area rather than just the part of the egg which hits the ground. 4
Challenge three: Friction marble run Design and make a marble run where the marble takes the longest possible time to descend. What can you add to slow its descent down? Use gentle inclines on the ramps to make the marble move more slowly. Think about putting rough material on the ramps to slow the marbles down. Once the marble has been set off, you are not allowed to touch it again until it reaches the bottom. Large sheet of stiff cardboard Any clean materials from your schools recycling box Masking tape Lolly sticks Kitchen rolls/cardboard tubes Cocktail sticks Sandpaper PVA glue There are lots of forces at work in a marble run such as friction and gravity. The heavier your marble and the higher your slope, the more energy your marble will have, so the faster the marble will run. However on a friction marble run the idea is to use friction to slow your marble down. 5
Challenge four: Marshmallow catapult Design and make a catapult to fling a marshmallow the furthest distance Double up on elastic bands to make the catapult more powerful. The catapult must launch the marshmallow. No throwing or assisting the marshmallow, once it is loaded onto the catapult. A team member can hold the catapult steady as it fires. Marshmallows Masking tape Rubber bands Lolly sticks Plastic spoons Clothes pegs Catapults store energy in the rubber bands until they fire the marshmallow. The more energy that is stored in the rubber band, the further the marshmallow will fly! 6
Challenge five: Eggy zip wire What is the longest distance that you can get an egg to travel across your playground without it breaking? No one must touch or carry the egg; it must be a minimum of 1 metre above the ground. You must make a contraption to transport it unaided for the furthest distance you can. Egg Empty yogurt pots/paper cups/plastic bags/fruit nets any clean materials for your schools recycling box String/wool Pasta tubes/cotton reels/paper clips/kitchen roll Scissors Washers If your zip wire is angled downwards, gravity will pull the egg down the zip wire. There will be friction created between the wire and the egg carrier. The less friction there is the faster the egg will travel. 7
Challenge six: Blow football Design and make a blow football game. Get as close to the ball as you can with your straw. This is a two player game. Each player has a straw to blow the ball. They take turns to blow the ball, aiming to get their ball into the goal. Ping pong balls Straws Cardboard boxes Fruit nets Even the slightest forces will affect the motion of objects. The ball responds to the force applied when you blow onto it. This force can make the ball start moving, slow it down or change its direction. 8
Challenge seven: Foam Javelin Design and make alterations to a foam javelin. Image This is a single player game. Each player has to throw a javelin. They can be thrown from a seated or a standing position. The children could invent scoring games using foam javelins to play on your school sports day ask the children to decide the scoring system for each game. Pool Noodles or pipe lagging. to make aerodynamic alterations. A foam javelin is a projectile. When you throw a javelin, it is pushed into the air by the thrower. The energy for the flight comes from the person throwing the javelin. Once it starts its flight, Newton s first law states that it will continue to fly unless acted on by a force. However the javelin soon begins to decelerate as a combination of air resistance and gravity. This creates an arc shaped flight path instead of a perfectly straight line. Athletes want the javelin to fly as straight as possible for as long as possible. Check out the ideas on the next page. 9
Challenge seven: Foam Javelin (continued.) Design and make alterations to a foam javelin. Look at the aerodynamic designs of real javelins. Various ideas. Coconut shy Stand four cones in a line. Put a ball on each cone. The children must try to hit the ball off the cones with the javelin to score points. Runway You need a tall hurdle or bar, a long thin sheet to make a landing strip and a foam javelin. Tell the children they are pilots and must try to land their javelin plane on the runway to score a point. They need to throw the javelin over the hurdle and get it to land on the landing strip. Bullseye In this game, the children will put their technique into practice and try to control the power of their javelin throw and aim to land inside a target area. The target area can be made using four cones. 10