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CLASS WORKSHOP: Force Focus for 5th & 6th class

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three ladies with a crane made of strawbees with a micro bit attached

Forces, Simple Machines and Automation with Strawbees - how things move and how to move them for 5th and 6th class.

Learn how to design, build and operate 2D and 3D mechanical structures using levers and servos.

Explore in this workshop the reasons for automation in the development of technologies that enable humans to work faster, safer, and more efficiently. We examine how cranes have utilized the mechanical advantage of levers throughout history and in the modern world to build and construct, as well as looking at the human role in operating cranes. Using Strawbees, we design and build 2D and 3D mechanical structures (cranes) using levers pushed and pulled by mechanical linkages and connect them to servo motors connected to BBC Micro Chips, to lift and drop. We also look at how automation can bring improvements to the quality of human life with the Sustainable Development Goals of infrastructure, industry, innovation with good health and discuss the future of automation.

In many robotic and automated creations, the movement of the motor matching the expected result will not be perfect the first time. Explore how to get different results of the crane’s automated movement by changing the motor, the code controlling the motor, and adjust the movement of the mechanical structure.

Curriculum Links

Primary school science curriculum links include Strand Unit: Energy & Forces, Strand Unit: Science and the Environment; and the Scientific Process Skill Development (Working scientifically, Questioning, Observing, Predicting, Investigating and experimenting, Estimating and measuring, Analyzing, Recording and Communicating, Evaluating, Designing and making).

Primary school mathematics curriculum links include: Strand Unit: Shape & Space (Patterns, Spatial Awareness, 3-D Shapes, 2-D Shapes, Symmetry, Lines & Angles); Strand Unit: Measure (Length, Area),

 

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Children using science equipment