Physics 2.5: PreK/K & Lower Elementary

 Hello all! 

We had such a fun last class! I can't believe it is already almost thanksgiving :) 

Our focus was on our last simple machine - a wedge - and the difference between potential and kinetic energy. We read a book about wedges and then talked about kinetic and potential energy and the first law of thermodynamics - that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can be converted to another form. We talked about examples of each and wrote them on the board and spent some time journaling about that, as well. 

Then we read the book "building up" to inspire us to create and build before getting started on our rube goldberg machine. Rube goldberg was actually a cartoonist from about 100 years ago who made cartoons depicting highly complex machines to do an exceedingly simple task. Our version of a rube goldberg machine had every single simple machine that we learned about and the end goal was to pop a balloon! We had a ball at the top of an inclined plane (demonstrating potential energy) that ran into a wall of books, that crashed into a car (wheel and axle), that fell into a basket on a pulley system, that moved another car (this car was loaded with screws to make it pointy) on a lever that ran into a balloon that was staying in place with a wedge. The kids loved this! It took lots of patience to set it up just right but both classes ended up successfully popping a balloon and it was fun to do it multiple times. 

This particular rube goldberg was inspired by this video if the kids want to recreate it (I made some changes with the supplies I had). It is only 6 seconds :) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QYxYp-D2J4&feature=share&ab_channel=TowerHillSchool  

For homework (are they even supposed to have homework after the last class? I don't know but here it is if they want it!), I would love the kids to try to make their own rube goldberg using simple machines we have learned about. For inspiration, here is an incredibly long and complex one that someone created that I think they would get a kick out of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lz8_aaKNXA&ab_channel=Creezy  

There are also two videos they can watch - one on wedges, and one on energy. 

Watch wedge video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAwZird80k&ab_channel=MocomiKids

Watch energy video (this one focuses only on one type of potential energy but it is still a great discussion):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBsU9DVa7ws&ab_channel=KnowledgePlatform

It's been a joy teaching your kiddos this quarter! I hope you all have a restful break. 

-Betsy