Mechanics: Late Winter, Week 1

We got off the a great start by discussing the overall theme of "Deconstruction," and what it means and where we see it. We all agreed on, it is when something that is built already is knocked down or taken apart. That lead us into the underlying theme of our atelier, mechanics. Where we discussed the different types of machines that we see everyday. We came up with quite a list, most of which were complex machines. We then turned our focus to what makes up the complex machines by disassembling a few machines of our own. As we took them apart we took note of all the parts that go into making up one complex machine. Noticing these smaller parts brought up the question, "what are these smaller machines that make this whole thing work?" On Wednesday we talked more about smaller, more simple machines that we use everyday such as scissors, staplers, hammers and pry bars, all examples of levers. We set up stations where the students could experiment all three classes of levers and a couple other simple machines. One station we used scissors and staplers, another using hand mixers to stir up water and soap to make bubbles, which was a huge hit! At yet another station we had hammers nails and wood to practice hammering and prying. on the final day we narrowed our focus yet again to one of my favorite levers... catapults! We were all challenged to build a catapult using two or three blocks and see how high or how far we could launch smaller blocks. blocks were flying everywhere, and when Solomon starting using his foot to launch the blocks the blocks flew even higher and farther! We ended the week by experimenting with some catapults that I made at home out of Lego. We discussed the similarities between the catapults they had mad and the ones that I made and then got to launching!