STEM Maker Set Resources

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STEM Maker Set!

Science without friction! cs STEM Maker Set for Science uli dra Hy w ne its se ea rel to Pathfinders Design is proud programs. and Engineering and outreach , es ac sp r ke Tin d an r ke Ma , Center programs Building on the popular Hydraulics Class pack, Pathfinders has collaborated with the University of California’s Lawrence Hall of Science to create a unique reusable set of materials for programs related to Hydraulics, Simple Machines and Engineering and invention.

Intuitive and challenging, children from ages 6 and over can explore and create machines with real hands-on experiences engaging their curiosity and creative problem solving. Whether they make a machine that replicates or solves a real world problem, or one that makes a funny face, students learn to think differently when they can easily explore connecting and making a machine move.

With a simple challenge, the students can imagine a solution, experiment, and problem solve and build a machine that solves the problem - or they can just tinker!

Best of all, the pieces are intuitive, there is a very fast learning curve for the kids, so time can be spent testing ideas, tinkering, and making. Instructional staff do not need extensive training as the parts are easy to understand and work with, and the materials can make simple machines or highly complex Rube Goldberg style machines, it all depends on the challenges - and the imagination of the student!

Building on a base, kids can A great reusable resource make simple, to highly for a Maker Space! complex machines - and decorate them at the end!

The Maker Set is ideal for up to 50 students,- for schools, science centers and museum schools and weekend maker and summer camp programs.

Product is natural wood, plywood Simple lever lifter and mdf with syringes and tubes to make the machines work.

Complex parallel linkage Designed as an open-ended resource this STEM Maker set combines ease of use with fun real-life challenges, to stimulate the creativity in kids and provide excellent curriculum based learning.

Make hurling machines!

What’s in the Set? - thousands of pieces!

(over 1900 pieces actually!)

Plywood linkages - 4 different kinds, 240 pieces

No batteries, wir e or expensive parts to replace!

35 bases enough for about 50 students working in groups!

4 different dowel sizes and piles of each size! (agreed that “piles” is not a real number, but there are a lot - 740 pieces in total!).

68 tubes

Hundreds (540 actually) of strong wooden pieces to connect, join, lift grab support and more!

activity Great for family s! tinkering space

135 syringes!

120 MDF connector pieces, winders and platforms!

Pipe cleaners, elastics, rubber O-rings

Design Challenges

Pour!

Excite!

Grab!

Tinker!

Rotate!

Create!

Make!

See it in action!

Lawrence Hall of Science Flickr Web page

Lift!

The Pathfinders STEM Maker web Site.

Excavate Energize!

Collaborate!

Doing an outreach program in a school?

The Maker Set is easy to transport!

The parts fit in a few basins and away you go!

Lay it out on a few desks and the students are ready to Make!

Easy to use in 1 to 3 hour classes.

A robust and reusable set of materials for a wide variety of programs!

Pathfinders Hydraulics STEM Maker Set

Animate!

Take the frogs for a ride! (really, is that a thing?)

Made with mdf and quality fsc certified wood from sustainable sources!

Pathfinders is a global, award wining innovative educational kit designer and manufacturer.

Designed by Canadian teachers, our kits and products are used in schools and science centers and sold in quality toy stores around the world.

Pathfinders donate 1% of sales to protect and enhance the natural environment.

Science without friction! www.pathfindersdesign.com www.pathfindersdesign.net

Day! Prepare for the

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Pathfinders STEM Maker Set Make some samples for display!

We suggest you familiarize yourself with the pieces, and, if you make a few simple machines for display - you can learn about the pieces - and have something for the students to experiment with when they arrive.

In the manual we suggested that you place the pieces in basins for easy access and it is also a good idea to have a tray of some kind so the kids can get a bunch of pieces, and O-rings and have them handy at their desk.

We don’t need to explain how to make the samples in any great detail, they are pretty easy to make, but we have some pictures of simple machines on the following pages.

Enjoy!

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smallest dowels insert into holes - they hold the upright pieces

the linkages are great for easy attaching!

angled pieces make the structure strong! (use the small dowels)

you can use O-rings to hold the dowels - or not bother so it is easy to adjust as you go!

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3

demonstrate how moving the dowel changes the range of motion - and note that the syringes can slide in the holder!

Sometimes we put a drop or two of food colouring into the water to help kids see the water!

Depending on the age of the kids- you can make the display machine more complex!

4

Add a second arm

Add some forks - or how about a wood piece so you can have the machine kick a ball!

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Use green masking tape or a pipe cleaner to hold this in place.

use a second syringe set Experiment with moving the attachment to different places to see how it affects the range of motion!

Attach the syringes with a pipe cleaner Or a linkage piece.

Show how the linkage pieces are put together - we like to leave them together like this - so it is easy for the kids to just attach - it makes the construction a lot faster!

That green masking tape is great works quickly and can be easily removed.

Discuss how the linkages can be attached - they will learn that pushing the plunger against gravity is better than pulling against gravity!

We like to have trays for the kids to collect pieces in and have handy.

Use long dowels - O-rings - or not! we like it when they are free to create with ease!

There are so many ways things can be created it is endless!

This linkage can be used with a parallel linkage setup.

Design Challenge: Helping our Friends People in wheelchairs sometimes need to get from one level to another.

Design a machine that will help lift and move a wheelchair between two levels.

Consider: • The platform has to stay level (horizontal) or the chair - and person! - may slide off.

• Hanging baskets are good, but they can be unstable. Can you make a platform that will lift but is also stable?

Design Challenge: Park it!

Parking vehicles in some cities is a problem - to take advantage of space, cars are stacked on top of each other.

Design a machine that will lift and move a car so more can be parked in the same place.

Consider: • The platform has to stay level (horizontal) or the car may slide off • Cars are heavy - while your machine won’t lift a real car, it has to be stable!

Design Challenge: Make a Lifternator!

People need to get lifted - for many reasons, from changing a light bulb to saving a cat in a tree (really, they still do that?)

Design a machine that will help lift a person so s/he can work at a height.

Consider: • Your machine should stay as level as possible.

• Can you make it turn or rotate so it is more versatile?

Design Challenge: Grab and Lift Machines are used to lift and transfer things, from robotic arms on assembly lines, to garbage trucks lifting bins.

Design a machine that will grab, and/or lift, and move an item from one place to another.

Consider: • Machines that do this often use two levers for more movement.

• When grabbing and lifting, the push of the syringe is stronger!

Design Challenge: Hurling with Hydraulics Machines can accelerate speed by placing the force on a lever close to the fulcrum, - a small movement on one side will create a much faster movement on the other longer side of the lever. Using a double lever really helps!

Design a machine that will throw a piece of plasticene.

Consider: • Attaching the syringe close to the fulcrum.

• Connecting two levers with string or a pipe cleaner to help acceleration.

Design Challenge: Mars Rover The Mars Rover (Curiosity) has a camera on the top that rotates.

Design a machine where you can place a cell phone and rotate it while recording a video.

Consider: • Securing the cell phone with tape so it doesn’t fall off!

• Using a string and pulley to rotate the camera tower over a wide (360 ° ?) range.

Design Challenge: Complex Machine Simple machines might use a single lever, gear or pulley mechanism. When you combine elements of simple machines, you get a complex machine (like a bicycle or car).

Design a complex machine that uses both a lever and a pulley in some way.

One complex machine!

Consider:

• Using a lever to lift or turn, then a pulley to wind something up • Combining your machine with other students to create a series of actions!

Design Challenge: Adjusting for Size People are different sizes and we often need a mechanism to solve the problem of keeping a computer screen - or keyboard, oriented so it faces you, but can be moved up or down.

Design a mechanism that will keep a screen facing you, but still able to move.

Consider:

• Researching and using a parallel linkage.

• Having it hold and move a cell phone! (Use tape!)

Design Challenge: Make a Face!

In movies, robotic animation uses levers to make models come to life, from a mouth opening to a walking dinosaur.

Design a mechanism that will make a facial or body movement.

Consider: • Eyes can blink or move, mouths can open!

• Use cardboard and paper to cover the hydraulics mechanism (well, I guess we don’t need to tell you that!)

Design Challenge: Rube Goldberg machine Rube Goldberg was an artist/inventor who designed crazy machines that did fun, yet goofy things.

Design a simple Rube Goldberg machine (that doesn’t involve a toaster) Consider: • Making two or more machines link together with some action (swinging action is fun!).

• Involving something that you can push that will roll down with gravity and then bump into something else.

Design Challenge: Make a moving machine Design a machine that can move itself across a surface.

Consider: • Not using a base!

• You can push the machine forward, or pull the machine!

• Make a machine that walks!

Design Challenge: Make a winged machine Leonardo da Vinci made many drawings of flying machines.

Design a machine that can make a movement like a bird’s wing Consider:

• Making a high platform so the wings can move down • Use cardboard or paper to cover the hydraulics mechanism - so it looks like a wing!

Design Challenge: Make a Moving Bridge Swing Bridges are common moving bridges where there is little room on the banks of the river.

Design a bridge that can swing open.

Consider:

• Make an approach structure with extra bases • Use cardboard to cover the road

Design Challenge: Make a Moving Bridge Lift Bridges are useful when a waterway is used often by boats.

Design a bridge that can lift.

Consider:

• Using a winder to lift the bridge? (or hydraulics!)

• Use cardboard to cover the road

Design Challenge: Make a Moving Bridge Bascule bridges are the most common moving bridges in the world.

Design a bridge that can tilt back and open.

Consider:

• Use two syringes - one for each side!

• Use cardboard to cover the road

Design Challenge: Lift that house!

With climate change there may be floods in areas that would usually be nice to live in, but once in a while may get flooded.

Design a machine that will lift a house, and then return it to the ground when the water recedes.

Consider: • The platform has to stay level (horizontal) or your breakfast may slide off the table.

• Houses are heavy - while your machine won’t lift a real house, it has to be stable!

Design Challenge: Make an animal trap Trapping animals for removal and relocation (like a skunk that lives under the porch) means they cannot be injured during capture.

Design a machine that will trap an animal safely so it doesn’t get hurt.

Consider: • using a basket of some type, or a sliding door • It might need to be lifted into a truck afterwards - can you make something to do that too?

Design Challenge: Make a loader Trucks now have many kinds of ways to lift and load materials (like snow or jelly beans) - onto a truck.

The truck on the left has a scoop to lift snow, place it in the back, then drop it off (in another place we bet!).

Design a machine that will lift material in a box and load it onto a truck Consider: • making a small container or box with cardboard for the scoop or the dumping bed.

• can you make it so the material it lifts can be unloaded later?

Pathfinders STEM Maker Set

Welcome!

Thank you for choosing Pathfinders STEM Maker Set. This Maker Set is designed to be an intuitive place for kids (and parents!) to design and build a wide variety of simple and complex machines.

You can use the Set in many ways, from a culmination activity to a unit on Levers and Simple Machines or Hydraulics, to a kickoff activity to a unit on inventors and inventions, and everything in between!

We have specifically not been too prescriptive, since this set is designed to give the students a hands-on activity with materials so they can have a tactile and rich experience designing and making machines that can be related to things they see in the world around them.

For a one hour (or so) program the challenges and machines they make can be simple, but once students get to the two to three hour time range, there is more opportunity to design, tinker and test, so students can be encouraged to make more complex machines (depending on the age level of course!)

We hope the following pages help you organize the materials for first time use, and outline items you will need - like basins for storage, and ideas about setting up samples to illustrate the ways the different linkages work. There is also a set of cards that can be used for challenges, should you wish.

All material is free to copy and use in educational situations, and you can contact us to get a digital (pdf) format of the manuals (if you do not already have it!).

Our educational web site has pictures of machines made in classes and other pictures to help you make samples if you wish (some are also on the following pages...) www.pathfindersdesign.net - see the STEM Maker Set section.

We do not include background information about what Work is, and levers and simple machines (inclined planes, screws and the like). We do have a glossary that does consider words that students should learn as you and they discuss the things they are making. Having students become familiar with vocabulary like friction, fulcrums, levers, effort (among a few) should be an outcome of the experience.

, kit! - let the students explore and s thi use to n geo sur ket roc a You do not have to be kering - everyone learns! through experimentation and tin

These students enjoyed the tinkering, and just made their machines more curious and interesting (or weird, depending on how you look at it) as the class progressed.

Some students are wired to tinker like this, so embrace the process and donʼt always worry about the outcome!

Outreach programs often have a short time for making machines, so best to pick a topic with up to two or three important things you want them to learn, and then let the kids build!

Outreach

If you want to have students make machines that throw something - a Hurling with Hydraulics class, you might consider that they learn 3 things: 1. Levers can accelerate force, 2. Force applied closer to the fulcrum creates faster movement further away from the fulcrum, 3. Connecting levers can accelerate force even more!

Having one to three core principles you want to reinforce is a great way to mix hands-on and knowledge outcomes.

In outreach programs the materials can be placed out on a table and the students can browse and use as needed.

Easy to pack up too!

Most of the materials - placed in smaller plastic basins fit in about 3 - 4 large bins. Samples for display can be reused!

Museum and Science Center Spaces For classroom use the materials can be left out for tinkering, and for Museum drop in areas, or Maker Spaces, you can leave out materials that are easiest to work with. If there is a short time, use samples on display that are less complex, and if a longer time is available consider more complex challenges!

For Maker Spaces it can make it a bit easier to leave some of the syringes attached to each other, with a linkage in the middle. This way they can grab one and attach it right away.

They are there to learn however, so you can decide if the filling and getting the bubbles out of a syringe should be a part of the experience!

These students did the Mars Rover challenge to make a rotating platform that could hold a cell phone and record a video as it turned.

Leave some attached?

Using the Set

There are a lot of pieces that need to be put into basins for ease of access by students. It is recommended to have a different basin or tub of some kind for each different piece, and since they vary in size we suggest that you get plastic basins as shown. If you have a classroom they Preparing don’t need tops, but if you are doing an outreach program Medium the set for consider containers that close!

Extra large We like clear ones, so you can see inside when they are closed. use.

Basins 16 small 2 medium 1 large 1 extra large for the long pieces.

Optional - an extra large basin for the Syringes A few other items can be handy, certainly some rags, paper towel, or sponges. When the kids pull the plungers out of the syringes and the water comes out (not if, when...).

small

String is great, kids can use it to lift with a winder, or to connect levers. Some in the set, you might need more! Pipe cleaners included, but you might need more!

Scotch tape or masking tape, for holding things together, no downside there.

Art Materials - yes! - paper, cardboard, magic markers, feathers, googly eyes, - to make the work into an art piece!

od, and the that it is made of wo is t Se er ak M e th t The great thing abou made of wood! bad thing is that it is The base has been varnished, but all the wood pieces will absorb water, so if they get wet they will expand and the dowels will jam in the holes. If water spills from the syringes (which happens!) have a rag or paper towel handy to dry them as soon as possible. It the pieces get wet and expand just set them aside overnight and they will dry and be fine. Best to have instructors give students new dowels or pieces if they are very wet as the pieces will be too tight to easily work with.

Most of the set is made of wood, so many of the pieces, while cut as accurately as we can get them, were once a tree, - so there will be pieces that are too snug, or need a little gentle persuasion to fit perfectly. If a piece is too tight in the holes, better to remove it from the set than to have a child banging at it or getting frustrated as it can’t be moved.

See the information about the pieces - to get an idea about what each piece can do and where it often is used.

These students took the Leonardo winged machine challenge and added a mouth that opened and shut, for a flying dragon!

If you are doing a specific unit, such as Machines to Help Us Lift Things, or a Maker Space in the run up to halloween - Lift that pumpkin!, or (my favourite) Hurling with Hydraulics, it might be good to go online and find pictures of the kinds of machines that do those things.

The www.pathfindersdesign.net has pictures of machines (and videos) that are free to use.

Having the students research samples of machines that do those things is good too (not many hydraulic catapults out there though, darn!).

Make a bulletin board!

week. Gather t x e n s e in h c a Lifting m We’re building lofty heights, to s u ft li t a th hines pictures of mac obile. become more m le p o e p d le b a or help dis

(leave the gerbil picture from the last unit, itʼs so cute!)

If you are using this set with a classroom, you might consider asking the students to submit a drawing of their designs before they make it, along with an outline of what they hope (plan) it will do. Afterwards, students can also do a write-up of what happened, what worked, and what did not Decide on work, along with some ideas about how it might look in the real world. your level

If you are doing an outreach program it would be best to introduce your topic, for example: of written “Making Lifting Machines” describe how they use levers, discuss a bit about hydraulics, explore work. the samples on the tables (see below) and then away they go! - don’t worry about the written work!

If you have a specific challenge for the session, - perhaps you want the students to lift something vertically (so the platform stays flat), have a few samples of the way in which the pieces can make a horizontal lifter. See our Challenges cards for project ideas!

Sometimes kids struggle with an initial design, as they may not have done an activity that is this open-ended.

In the introduction, we often suggest to them that they copy a sample on the table, - to get them going, then add their own ideas to it. We like to have a simple sample, and show how, if you turn it sideways - or upside down - it makes a whole new machine!

Make a few simple samples if you think students need ideas! Let them play with the samples to learn how they work!

Show some examples.

Describe the Parts

Spend a few minutes describing the attributes of the parts.

It is a good idea to pick up and show the pieces - and describe what they do - and if you wish show where they are used in a sample that is on display. Show how the linkages work - with an elastic band to hold them together, - how the O rings hold the dowels in place - how the small dowels fit nicely inside the ends of the pieces- and hold them nicely in the base, this is very helpful!

Linkages connect pieces O rings hold pieces together.

Platforms hold things

Dowels The dowels are pretty straightforward, however it is a good idea for the instructors to model Model careful for the students how to put the dowels in and out of the holes - using a twisting action and encouraging the students to not bang them or try to yank them hard if they are jammed. Pulling insertion and the dowels straight up while twisting a bit when removing or inserting them, and working them removal of the gently as they insert them into the holes is best. Tight dowels can be removed from the set if they dowels are hard to get in!

4 cm dowels

Longer dowels are good, then you donʼt need the Orings to keep things together!

Long wood pieces Note the holes on the long pieces, there are 4 holes in one direction and 1 hole in the other direction. Remind them to watch this as they make their machine, so they don’t have to take pieces apart as they build (encourages them to plan ahead a bit!).

O-rings

The black O-rings help keep dowels in place, but for the most part they are not needed, until the machines get complex and pieces need to be held in place while more is being added. We use yoghurt (or the like) container lids for students to hold them on their working table!

Trays for pieces are a good idea if you have a maker space!

Longer pieces give more room to place the syringe holder - makes it easier to adjust too!

Use O rings as needed!

Filling the syringes

oring You can add a drop of food col ! our col ht slig a to give the water

It is a good idea to demonstrate how to charge the syringes (add water to them). You can leave them attached to each other with a holder in the middle and the students can use them ready to go, or show how to fill up a syringe and insert it into the syringe that is on the machine they are making. For small children it can be hard to attach the tube if it is new, but once it has been inserted a few times it is looser and easier to insert into the syringe. If the tube gets too loose at the end, simply snip off 3 mm and then it will be snug.

Generally speaking the best plan is to fill the syringe at a filling station away from the machines they are making, so if something happens and water is spilled, the students do not get water on the base.

Ideally the kids learn that if they tilt the syringe up, the bubbles float up to the top of the tube, then with the syringe in the upright position they can push the bubbles out the tube, (then insert into the water and refill).

This student took the challenge to create a machine that could push itself across a surface - it could pull itself the other way too!

Always fill the syringe with a tube attached!

Slide on a linkage piece and add the second syringe (plunger in!)

If a syringe is already attached to the machine, show how the plunger on the machine syringe has to be pushed all the way in so there are no bubbles in the water when the master syringe and tube is attached to it. Having bubbles however is a great learning experience as when they pull the plunger the air expands and they learn about the idea that air molecules are loosely attached, and water molecules are tightly packed. When this happens they learn to pay attention to how air in a piston is not good!

The students can be reminded not to pull the plunger out - but it will happen!

How to attach syringes It is a good idea to note to the students how the syringes are attached, and how to use the syringe holders (the wood one, and the square mdf one), as well as model how to attach a syringe holder Attaching with an elastic syringes Syringe plungers can be attached to a lever with the linkage, or a piece of pipe cleaner - through the hole on the plunger. Demonstrate or point out the two methods.

There are so many ways to attach syringes! Here are a few...

Sideways!

Simple

Use a pipe cleaner!

Multiple syringes!

More complex!

Lift

Rotate

Remember! rks urage them to tell you how it wo • Let them be creative, and enco Enjoy guided discovery fun! ve Ha ns tio es qu k As es • Take pictur

Activity Ideas - Design Challenges!

The Design Challenges give students a place to start in making a machine that has a purpose of some kind, from helping disabled people get around, to throwing things, to a Rube Goldberg machine that does random things designed to be creative and unusual.

You program may lie anywhere between giving a specific (simple) task - such as lift a small pumpkin 6 cm (at halloween) - to “make a machine with two different levers” - which is totally open-ended and has no specific task in mind (except they have to know the 3 different levers!).

When used over time - kids get the hands-on experimentation that is important to learning. As they progress and have more confidence, challenge them to make their machine work better, and do more things, or do them more efficiently. You can also create themes and have the students create machines around that theme (as on page 4 and below). Have art materials so they can decorate them, or create one giant machine with bases in all directions! - the world is your oyster!

Make a Hurling Machine!

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2

Use pipe cleaners to connect pieces!

Simple!

Complex!

Animate a Face!

Finally! - Share your work!

Have a look at the Lawrence Hall of Science Flickr Site - Ingenuity Lab@ the Hall - Hydraulics https://www.flickr.com/photos/lhsingenuitylab/albums/72157659273676949 - great stuff!

Email us with your activities and we will put a link from our Educational Web site!

If you have any questions or concerns, please email our lead designer Derek at: derekwulff@pathfindersdesignandtechnology.com (long address, yes, but worth the email!)