KS2-Mechanical systems
This list supports learning about mechanical systems including levers, linkages, pulleys and cams with 7–11 year-olds. Providing ideas for developing skills used in D&T through focussed practical tasks. There are lots of opportunities for children to work on exploring mechanical systems looking at how they work and are how they are put together. Children then design, make and evaluate their own designs and made any modifications they feel are needed to make them suitable for the purpose and audience that they have been designed for. Ideas for D&T projects include a range of relevant contexts including home, school, industry and the wider environment.
How Will Your Beast Open Its Mouth?
One of the units from the Nuffield Primary Solutions in Design and Technology in which children design and make an animal with a moving mouth.
Children study their own mouth and head movements and those of animals before designing their animal's mouth. The mechanisms used by the children are restricted to a cam and follower, a simple crank or a crank and slider.
The context of the activity is that of designing a set of moving animals that can be used to promote interest in animals in a variety of situations, such as on farms, in zoos or at home.
Modelling linkages
Investigating simple linkages using card models.
A mechanism is a device that changes movement in some way. Linkages are a type of mechanism. There are different types of linkage, each of which change movement in different ways.
This could be used in Key Stage 2 as a stand-alone activity or as an introduction to a design and make project, such as:
- A greetings card - for example a ‘goodbye’ card with a hand that waves.
- A moving poster or display.
- A ‘grabber’ to pick things up.
In this activity, students will make models of simple linkages from card.
Popular Mechanics: Becoming a Designer of Machines
This resource aimed at upper primary contains a series of lessons which look at the means by which machines (cams, levers, gears and pulleys) transform force into movement. The first lesson provides the context for the project in the form of a story, where students are asked to create a counter to count visitors to a shop and/or create mechanical toys to tell stories. Children explore a range of toys and mechanical devices identifying features like gears, cams and axles and thinking about how they transmit and transform movement. In the following lesson children explore gears and cams in everyday objects, looking at how they work and gathering the knowledge they need to create their own mechanical objects. The next lesson involves applying the knowledge they have gained to design, create and modify a mechanical object (a toy or a counter). Finally they evaluate the process of creating the mechanical objects, discussing how and why they may have modified them.
Ocean Grabber
In this resource learners will explore why scientists are engaged in research at the bottom of the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans. They will understand the importance of collecting samples of organisms that make the sea floor their home and what these can tell us about global concerns. They will explore the challenging conditions faced by Remotely Controlled Vehicles performing sampling missions and the scientists that control the vehicles. Learners will also explore the most appropriate sampling tool for use in marine sampling and design their own ‘grabber’ for the ROV. After designing a sampling tool they will create a prototype robot arm grabbing tool and evaluate their design with their knowledge of existing grabbing tools.
Martian Explorers: How does the ExoMars Rover Work?
This resource provides a series of 1 hour lessons designed to help children understand the need for exploration robots and learn about how they function. They are based around the European Space Agency’s (ESA) new robotic rover Rosalind Franklin will explore Mars and send back data vital for human exploration in the future. The activities link mostly to D&T with a science context.
STEM Primary lesson plans
This set of resources and accompanying video, introduce children to the concept of biomechanics – a range of prosthetics using hydraulics. Using the real-life inspirational story of a dad, Ben, who designed his own son, Sol’s, prosthetic arm, this set of activities teach children how bones, muscles, ligaments and joints work together to provide us with a range of movements. This set of two lessons includes:
- A helpful video explaining the history to Ben and Sol’s journey, along with what biomechanics is and some of the challenges faced by those requiring prosthetics
- Lesson plans and resources to teach how our body and limbs move, through the fascinating hook of prosthetics
- Real-life case studies which facilitate children to engage in discussion with issues surrounding biomechanics whilst considering its impact and importance
- An opportunity for children to design and build their own prosthetic arm, applying their understanding to a real-life and current issue faced by many.
What Music Would You Like to Make?
In this activity children design and make a simple musical instrument and use it to play a part in a piece for four players. There are lots of opportunities to link to work in science on sound in this project and also to music with children exploring rhythm, simple melody lines and the arrangement of parts.
Will This Story Surprise You?
This activity should follow-on from exploration of examples of pop-up mechanisms in books and tasks where children make some of the pop ups themselves. They then work in small groups, to design and make a pop-up book that will intrigue, amuse and inform particular readers. The readers may be the children themselves or another identified group.
Catapult
This video shows an activity where children build their own Catapult, then see how far they can launch small objects. They are provided with step by step instructions to create a catapult using rubber bands and lollipop sticks, as well as considering how levers work. This activity supports learning about forces, providing an applied context for this area of science learning.
Flying dragon
This activity provides pupils with the opportunity to explore the overlap between art and D&T. Children can work individually or as part of a team to design and build a moving model of a flying dragon. Pupils will learn what a crank is and how they work, how to measure the forces of a crank and how to build a crank from simple materials.
Ball Run
In this activity children design and build their own Ball Run, and put their final creation to the test. They are provided with tips for joining dowels together, making longer lengths for their run and providing stability to their structures. This activity supports learning about forces and D&T, providing an applied context for their science learning. It also encourages problem solving, perseverance, creativity, cooperation and spatial thinking. A list of equipment needed is also supplied within the resource, though children could try to create a similar structure with materials available to them.
Seesaw Scales
This resource focusses on developing understanding of levers, so is useful when learning about forces and before applying knowledge of levers in product designs. Levers are one of the simplest forms of machine. They are used to change the size (magnitude) or direction of a force. Can you work out the force required to move a load using a lever? In this activity learners will make a simple lever assembly from a binder clip, ruler, two paper cups and sticky tape.
Squashed tomato STEM challenge
This challenge is set in Nepal and is based on a problem that local farmers there have, so is an authentic context. The problem is that many farmers living on the mountainside need to get their fruit and vegetables to market. This involves a long, dangerous walk down the mountain side and over a river, at the end of which the tomatoes may well be a bit squashed. Children are challenged to design, build and test a way of moving tomatoes that won't squash them!
Before children can design a mechanical system for this, they need to have an understanding of forces and to explore mechanical systems such as levers and pulleys. They can then apply this knowledge to try and design and make a solution. Once made they can evaluate their own and other groups products and made any modifications to improve them.
Stop the spread STEM challenge
This activity highlighting the global issue of infectious disease as it asks children to design, build and test a model of a hand washing device. It is set in Kenya where engineers have worked on producing similar devices. Children would need to think about what design would work in this situation and design it with children as the end user of the product.
Ideas on how to explore cams, levers and linkages using cardboard. It can be extended into creating cardboard toys which turn or move in certain ways using the mechanical systems that have been explored in detail. Children can go on to design and decorate their creations to appeal to their desired audience.