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: Peter Naffziger
Our original LEGO amusement park ride did not turn out as planned, so this was our backup plan, which we used for our final LEGO project. It’s a roller coaster, and I think it turned out great! LEGOS are fun, and when I heard we were doing them in school I thought it was so cool! It was even cooler when we got to build amusement park rides!
Guest Blogger: Devyn Kleidon
This week, in our LEGO workshop, we used what we knew about simple machines to build model amusement park rides out of LEGOS. I had a ton of fun building this ride! And it was also hard to build. It is called The Knight. When we turn the handle, the wheels turn, which makes the seat go up and down. We had to make it stable so it wouldn’t fall down, so we used support beams on the side.
Guest Blogger: Owen Thorp
My name is Owen, and today I am going to talk about LEGOS. So this is The Giant Drop. We made all of this using simple machines, so first we made a superstructure, then we used LEGOs to make a pulley. Next, we tested it and it worked out great so then we also made a superstructure to support the drop. Then we discovered that the drop worked out great and decided to try to make a roller coaster too. I hope more people are inspired to make cool things out of LEGOs! In order to operate the Giant Drop, first you need to pull a lever to activate the pulley Here’s a closer look at the Giant Drop. Have fun!
