WMA in the Classroom Adventures with STEM Projects

in the Second and Third Trimesters

Grade One...Grade One...

Whirligigs and Build Whirligigs and Build your own Dinosauryour own Dinosaur

Build a Whirligig

Objective:

Students were asked to build their own whirligigs, which are

objects that spin or whirl.

Engineering Challenge:

Grade one students were given the task to work with one or two

partners to design and build a whirligig.

How they did it:

Students brainstormed ideas and drew preliminary sketches of

their thoughts and ideas in their journals. With the help of Mr.

Borton, they chose the design, the number of blades they want-

ed and set to making the whirligig. The designs were tested on

height and time suspended in the air.

Build Your Own Dinosaur

Objective:

Students were asked to build LEGO® dinosaurs, using specific

instructions.

Engineering Challenge:

Grade one students were given a set of LEGOS® and a set of

three cards containing physical characteristics. They were asked

to construct their designs based on the characteristic cards they

were given.

How they did it:

Students followed the specifications on the cards and were able

to build their dinosaurs accordingly.

Grade Two...Grade Two... Make a Wind RacerMake a Wind Racer LEGO We Do MonkeysLEGO We Do Monkeys

Make a wind racer!

Engineering Challenge:

Students worked with their partners to design and build a bal-

loon-powered racer with the materials provided. However, the

race car plans did not come with instructions. The students

worked in teams to design their cars. Then they assembled them

and raced to find out who’s was the fastest in the grade.

Intro to WeDo Drumming Monkey

Students were introduced to the LEGO® WeDo kits, which attach

working motors and sensors to the laptops and allow students to

create simple to complex programs for their bots. In their intro-

duction, they made a working model with a motor that turned a

fan forward and backward.

Engineering Challenge:

Students followed a WeDo-structured build to build a monkey

that drummed on a cup in different rhythmic patterns. They used

the motor, gear assembly, cam shaft and added motion sensors.

Grade Three...Grade Three... Make an LED Greeting Make an LED Greeting Card and Robot CritterCard and Robot Critter

Electricity—Simple Circuits

Make an LED Greeting Card

Students designed a greeting card and made it light up with cir-

cuit writer pens. They laid out a simple circuit to illuminate their

cards. They also drew their circuits using the conductive ink and

were able to run the LED lights in parallel to add light to their

greeting card designs.

Robot Critter

Students built a LEGO® WeDo creature, either an alligator, bird or

lion. After completing this build and programming their creatures

to demonstrate movement, students picked a random habitat for

these creatures in which to live and made adaptations for the

creatures to thrive. Adaptions were made to both the LEGO®

creature and the computer program.

Grade Four…Grade Four… Build an Adaptive Build an Adaptive Kicker and Rube Kicker and Rube Goldberg ApparatusGoldberg Apparatus

Build a Adaptive Kicker

Human Body Robot Build

Engineering Challenge:

Students worked in teams to build a LEGO® kicker to attach to a

wheelchair which would enable a person with a disability to play

soccer. Students used the LEGO® WeDo kits to build a kicker that

was either programmed to start on a “go” command or was set

up with a motion sensor. The kickers were tested for both

distance and accuracy.

Simple Machines

Robotics/Rube Goldberg Apparatus

Engineering Challenge:

Students worked in groups to design, build and implement a

Rube Goldberg apparatus that incorporated three simple ma-

chines using found objects, Kinects and the LEGO® WeDo ro-

botics kits. Students worked in groups of five with specific roles

assigned to them to accomplish these tasks.

Named after cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg, the appa-

ratus is overly elaborate and performs a rudimentary task via a

chain reaction.

Grade Five...Grade Five... Build a LEGO® Bot Build a LEGO® Bot and a Create Water and a Create Water Filtration SystemFiltration System

LEGO® Robotics Build

Students were introduced to the LEGO® NXT kits. They worked in

teams of three to build the education bot. After building the

basic bot and learning how to program it to move, they added

both light and audio sensors to accomplish basic robot challeng-

es.

Environmental Engineering:

Water Filtration Challenge

Students were grouped in teams of three to design an effective

water filtration system using commonly found household items.

They were given various materials to test before designing the

filter. After they designed and built the filter, they were provided

with a bottle of mystery water to filtrate. They were judged on

economics of their designs, speed of filtration and clarity in the

water.

Grade Six...Grade Six... Build a Toothpick Build a Toothpick Bridge and Launch Bridge and Launch Bottle RocketsBottle Rockets

Bridge Building

Engineering Challenge:

Students worked in teams to design and build a bridge from

toothpicks, following protocol for specific bridge type and an

assigned budget. Each student on the team played a different

role in the build and was responsible for his or her area of exper-

tise. Bridges were judged on the amount they cost and the

amount of weight that was suspended from them until they

broke.

Bottle Rockets

Engineering Challenge:

Students worked individually to research, design and build a

bottle rocket powered by air pressure and water, producing maxi-

mum flight height conditions. The rockets were constructed from

two-liter plastic bottles and were judged on the altitude they

achieve.

Grade Seven...Grade Seven... Build Hand Pollinators Build Hand Pollinators and a Better Boneand a Better Bone

Cell Structure and Function

Build a Hand Pollinators: EIE

Engineering Challenge:

Students built the best hand pollinator to help save several differ-

ent shaped plants. Students worked in teams of three to test

commonly found materials to see which collect and deposit pol-

len the most effectively. Then, they designed and tested their

pollinators to work with four extremely different shaped flowers

and plants.

Build a Better Bone

Engineering Challenge:

Students worked in teams to build and design the strongest

bone. Using a very limited amount of card stock and tape, stu-

dents designed a bone by rolling and folding the paper. The

bones were tested by adding weight until they broke.

Grade Eight...Grade Eight... Build a VoiceBuild a Voice--Controlled Catapult and Controlled Catapult and a Pie Plate Speakera Pie Plate Speaker

Newton’s Laws of Motion

LEGO® Voice Controlled Catapult

Engineering Challenge:

Students built a LEGO® counterweight catapult and adjusted the

design for the furthest toss. The catapults were controlled using

the audio sensor and were voice controlled to launch.

Build a speaker with a pie plate.

Students built a working speaker with a coil of copper wire, a

magnet and pie plate. The students learned how to make a voice

coil and attached it to an amplifier. Students then played their

own music selections and added different shaped aluminum

plates to the coil to see which made the best quality sound.