We have some special guest bloggers in March and April as Ms. Nelson’s third graders (Longfellow) have agreed to share their thoughts on the Geared Up program with us. Geared Up is an excellent introduction to engineering, using LEGOs. The program was first proposed by Gretchen Junker during our last Call for Ideas. Ms. Junker currently serves as the Program Coordinator, and a VEX Robotics Coach. This week’s posts are the final entries, all about the LEGO “Amusement Park Rides” students created using their knowledge of simple Machines. You can read all the posts that you missed here.
Guest Blogger: Sofia Ryan
Before we started building, we began by sketching a plan. Here is our main plan for a ride we call, The Miner’s Cave.
This is our back-up plan for The Humpty Dumpty ride.
My partner, Peter, and I ended up deciding to make a roller coaster for our class’s final LEGO workshop.
Here it is …
We used a pulley and an inclined plane. This activity was very fun and if your class does it you should be excited! The simple machines can make work easier,and they help you have fun!
For example, amusement park rides are fun, and most rides use simple machines!
With our roller coaster’s inclined plane, gravity pulls you down and makes you go faster than when you are on the flat ground. Wheels make it easy to move on flat ground or on a drop.
I really liked this project because it is fun to play with simple machines.