What you need:
- Blocks, dominoes, etc.
- Crayons.
- Ball or racecar.
- Recycled items.
- Tape.
- Books.
Directions:
- The goal is to send a ball down a ramp, which starts a domino rally with an ending that will knock over a set of blocks acting as bowling pins.
- Use recycled materials to create a slope or slide.
- At the base of the slide build a domino rally that leads to a set of blocks that can be knocked over.
- Test the structure by sending a ball or racecar down the slope to see if it starts the domino rally and knocks over the pins.
- If all of the pins are not knocked down, reset the domino rally and try again until you knock over all of the pins.
Ways to expand:
- Make the domino rally longer to create a more difficult challenge.
- Make it a competition! Keep score of how many pins you knock down on each turn. See which competitor wins after 10 rounds
What kids learn:
- Basic engineering skills. Engineers solve problems with constraints. They learn to solve problems by using the engineering design process: asking questions, coming up with solutions, building, testing and improving.
- Experimentation! When kids experiment, they're learning how to learn. Failure is an important part of experimenting, so let kids try things that won’t work. It’s how they figure things out!
- Math skills. Children can practice counting and keeping track of how many pins they knock down.
Vocabulary:
- Force: energy caused by a push or a pull, in this case, the pull created by your hand when you push the car or ball.
- Potential Energy: The amount of energy an object stored up in something. A rolling object at the top of a slope has lots of potential energy!
- Kinetic energy: The amount of energy an object has when in motion. When your hand releases the car or ball, the object loses potential energy but gains kinetic energy.e!