Year 5 had a fantastic week this week designing and creating toys with our specialist teacher Tony. We worked in pairs to create toys that move using a cams mechanisms, inspired by sea shanties we had been learning about. We had to be problem solvers and think carefully about solutions.
We started by building our structure from thick card with wood in the corners to strengthen it. Then we added an axle, crank and designed our own shape cam. We had to think carefully about the shape of our cam to ensure we got the movement we wanted.
We started by building our structure from thick card with wood in the corners to strengthen it. Then we added an axle, crank and designed our own shape cam. We had to think carefully about the shape of our cam to ensure we got the movement we wanted.
After using a drill to make holes for our riders, we tested the cam and fixed any issues we found. At last it was time to decorate!
We were really lucky to have visiting engineers on one of the days to support us with our project and tell us all about engineering.
We were really lucky to have visiting engineers on one of the days to support us with our project and tell us all about engineering.
As if this wasn't exciting enough, Dan helped us control our toys with a computer motor!
Here are some of our finished toys: