Lego Get Moving Page 6
Workshop Programme Teachers' Notes
Get Moving
·
Enjoy making cars from boxes. Encourage the pupils to notice the places in
which friction affects movement (e.g. wheels rubbing against car bodies).
·
The Funicular
.
There are many different
ways to get up steep slopes. Two ways are
illustrated here. Example A is a machine
called a funicular. A funicular is a means of
transport for travelling up steep cliffs or hills.
It has two identical carriages connected by a
cable. The cable runs over a pulley wheel. Neither
carriage will move unless pulled as they are equally
balanced. When pulled, one set of carriages moves
downhill with gravity and it pulls the other set uphill
against gravity.
A funicular principle model is easy to make in class:
·
Make two identical vehicles from LEGO building bricks or found material.
·
Attach the vehicles to either end of a piece of string. Hang the string, on
a pulley/a peg/ a doorknob or similar. The vehicles are in balance.
·
Now place a load on one of the vehicles: it will go down with gravity,
whereas the other vehicle will go up against gravity.
·
The Big Race. Follow up on the workshop experience by building vehicles out of
LEGO Education kits. Make a speed ramp from thick cardboard propped up by a
pile of books or something similar.
Predict which vehicle will travel the furthest. Then test the vehicles and
record the distances travelled. Discuss the results: what were the properties
A
B
Wheel
Box
Plastic
tubing
Plastic
tubing
Wooden
clothes
peg
Tape
Dowelling
Dowelling
