Technoteacher - Day 5
By bird or by car?
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Make a list of the main transportation systems you see at home, at school and on the street. Do they have wheels? Blades? Skis? Tracks? Flippers? Fins? Wings? |
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For the space lab, draw the main systems you are able to identify and arrange them along a vertical scale, with space at the top, the ocean floor at the bottom, and the Earth and air in between.
A Rolling Robot...Gathers No Moss!
To help students understand the concept of robotic transportation systems, get them to make small Plasticine robots. Then ask then to build a ball-bearing system that will enable their little robots to spin around.
You will need:
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two metal lids (such as from a pickle jar) of different sizes |
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some ball bearings |
Procedure:
- Place the ball bearings inside the smaller lid
- Put the larger lid on top
- Stick the little robot on the larger lid.
The robot can now be swiveled back and forth easily. Explain to students that, by eliminating friction, ball bearings can be used to make objects mobile. Ball bearings are a commonly used transportation system in robotics.
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