Wind Powered Vehicle Challenge

During the first 2-3 weeks of term 3 , we are having a bit of a technology challenge with chocolate prizes for the 3 place getters (Mr.B LOVES chocolate so I will be entering as well). This is under our provocation title of How Stuff Works.

We have loaded a number of Youtube clips showing various plastic recycled models onto our seesaw blog for viewing and as a potential model. There are wind powered sail vehicles, balloon and rubber band propelled ones as well, so we will see how the competition- and enthusiasm is - to see just how many we make.

The idea for the wind powered vehicles is to firstly, look at the clips and get inspired. Start bringing plastic bottles, caps, string, old C.D discs for wheels.We will supply skewers, straws and hot glue guns and CHOCOLATE bars as prizes. Also, Mr.B will bring his leaf blower as out constant wind source.

Learning that we hope will take place.

The idea is that the children will work through the technology process of :plan and make a 'car' as per the design brief.Make a model to trial and work through the process of testing/adapting and making changes to their models and understand that there is a relationship between materials used and performance ( light is best!)We will touch on friction, weight and sail area as these come up in discussions.

Watch this space!!!

The blurb below appeared on our blog outlying the design brief and challenge requirements.

Technology Vehicle Challenge Design Brief:to design a vehicle propelled by wind that you have made from some recycled materials. Planning and design phase:As you are viewing our blog on Seesaw - "How to make a model car"-use some of these ideas to sketch your car and annotate it ( arrows pointing to the bits you have used) Constructing: Make a model -as per your drawing- and test drive it outside in our 'wind tunnel' ( Mr.Boyd's leaf blower).Did it work? What might you modify to improve your design? Does it meet our deign brief ( you have built it, it is made from some recycled materials, it is ONLY powered by the wind). What might you modify to improve your design? Back to the drawing board:Using what you have learned so far, draw and annotate a new car and go through the deign process again. The more you draw and make, the more chances you have to enter and win the CHOCOLATE!!! 

After viewing the Youtube clips on our blog, we then did our annotated designs in our provocation/Topic books. These were used as the template/ instructions for our 1st models which we later trialled.

So, after much mayhem , mess and frustration in class with craft knives, broken glue guns and general helplessness we managed to get our craft to the trialling stage.This was carried out in the hall and in the walkways with my leaf blower.Vehicles were then modified as required.

Finally, the day of the competition arrived with much last minute tears and added pressure of chocolate up for grabs.This was carried out in the hall with Mr.B taking lines honours, 2nd Holly.C , Fapiola, Miyah and Chloe, 3rd Zeke, Quinn and Justin. 

There were also 9 additional prizes for good design ( Shyanne who had her disc wheels inside the body of her milk bottle), and also for people who stayed on task and who those who worked well as a team.

MasksTerm 3

OMDuring term 3, koru 3 will be looking at making masks to tie in with our provocations of "My Voice is Powerful" ( exploring the arts in our world as a way to express ourselves and the different roles, responsibilities and contributions that people make to their community/ societies). Also ,'How Stuff Works" ( Investigate How Physical and Material phenomena can change: clay being fired is an irreversible change).Lastly, Looking Back to Look forward (N.Z is made of different cultures who have their own stories,traditions,celebrations that are important to them ...and their use of masks in these celebrations. 

Our Journey so far...finally

So , as a start we searched youtube and loaded some 'How to make..' clips onto our Seesaw blog for viewing. We located paper mache and clay masks, as projects that looked the most interesting. Then we started to make a paper template from which we could trace our African design onto our clay....stay tuned!

Some of our almost finished clay African masks which are now ready for firing in our kiln and painting?

Some of the skills we had to learn were how to rough up both surfaces and apply slip so when our worked dried bits didn't fall off!

Our next mask project is one made of paper mache over either a balloon or, in our case, a plastic cone ( finger crossed they will come off!)

The start of koru's 3rd mask...we are on a roll.This one was planned using 4 sketches and then picking the one we liked the most. We then looked at a Youtube clip and replicated the the following recipe ( more or less, that's how Mr.B cooks as well, close enough is good enough!). 1x roll toilet paper shredded, 1/4 oil (linseed), 1/4 flour, 1 cup plaster of paris, salt and 1/4 cup PVA glue. We moulded this brew over a cone covered with a plastic bag ( you can teach an old dog new tricks) and then smoothed and shaped it according to the outline on our cardboard.

Finally, we are getting close to finishing these masks.The paper mache mix took quite a while to dry and we had a few bits and pieces fall off but...it's all a learning experience.I think we are appall quite chuffed with the clays masks and a bit so so with the others( live and learn).