Wednesday, 3 March 2010

K'nex Capers

On Tuesday we were visited by Ruth Falconer of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths from the Scottish Government) to talk to us about engineering.  She brought with her several sets of K'nex.  With the help of the K'nex we looked at how shapes can be reinforced.  As a class challenge we were split into groups of 2 or 3 and had to build a wheelbarrow that could carry a book out of a flooded library.  We had to plan then build our barrow, adapting our model as we go.  Below are some photos as we were working.
When we were finished out models we had to present them to the class while Mr McIntosh, Mr Taylor & Mr Gallacher judged our success.  It was a very close competition with nearly every model successfully carrying the book the length of the desk.  Here is a photo of our winning team!
We're lucky to now have K'nex in the schools, so we're thinking of how to use it in our topic right now, any ideas?

4 comments:

  1. Well done Primary Six, you worked superbly for Ruth with the K'nex modelling. I am really looking forward to setting more challenges with this new resource for the school.

    I was beginning to think about new ideas for challenges. As we are moving on with our Europe topic towards how countries make decisions etc I was thinking about making a building project, such as a bridge design perhaps. How could we test a structure like a bridge?

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  2. I like doing the building the wheel barrows it was great fun. If there was something wrong you had to problem solve what to change. It was very hard to have the right shape to fit the book in.

    By Elsa

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  3. We got Tom Muir to visit our school to tell us some of the famous storys in Orkney.He told us about the Stoor Worm,The Missen Seal Skin.The thing that I liked was he put a lot of expression.

    By Connan

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  4. My favourite part of the K'nex was when we made a wheel barrow that had to carry a book from one end the table to the other. In my group it was fun getting them judged.

    By Owen B.S

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