Happenings for January 9th – 13th

Welcome back Stout Falcons and Happy New Year!! Here’s what to expect this week:

8th Grade

4th hour will begin constructing trays using pallet wood. If you would like to bring your own safety glasses to use during class you are more than welcome to do so. We will spend this week first building sanders with 2 X 4 wood and screws so that we can attach sandpaper and then use these to sand the pallet wood which can be very rough. Other items to consider bringing is paint (quart size is fine) if you do not want to use any of the colors we have in the classroom.

7th hour will begin our final unit on gear driven vehicles. Students will get into groups of 2-3 to design a way to use gears, wheels, axles and a small motor to drive a vehicle at least 3 meters in 3 seconds. here’s an example of what we are working on:

Motorized Toy Car

Students develop new designs for electric gear driven toys. The students are involved in writing proposals, drawing sketches, and working with models to develop a plan to meet a specific set of design requirements. Force and friction, simple machines, levers and gears, torque and design are the core scientific concepts covered in this challenge.

7th grade:

Students in this class will continue to work on their architecture unit. Most students are beginning the model portion of the activity which is due on January 20th.

6th grade:

Students just completed their unit on manufacturing gameboards and this week they will begin learning about architecture. We will begin with identifying styles of homes such as colonial and ranch. Students will then use a website called smallblueprinter.com to create a simple floor plan. This will be the final summative grade for this group. Extra credit is offered with this assignment as well as the extra credit offered below.

Read over the article below. Take a look at all of the inventions of 2016 and choose one you feel impacts you the most. What do you like about this invention? If you could change it in some way, how would you improve it?  Type a short, one paragraph paper to answer these questions. EMAIL your response to me by January 20th to earn 10 formative points. 

 

https://interestingengineering.com/20-cool-inventions-2016/