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Ideas needed - JR Maker's club

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Brass_Machine:
My son is currently in a 1st Lego Robotics club at his school. When he changes school next year we are in a quandary.  We can do the 1st Lego League again or try something different. While the Lego thing is interesting, it is very regimented and not much is actually made until he gets older. So, the missus and I have discussed starting a JR Maker's club which will allow us to be more free form in the stuff the kids get to make and do.

We believe meeting twice a month would work, but we need to come up with some ideas for the kids to make/do. The projects should be able to be done in 1 or 2 sessions and have some sort of educational value. While we have come up with some ideas, we really need more.

Some of the ideas we have come up with:

1. Balloon rocket races.



This can be converted into doing balloon car races as well.

2. oobleck experiments



There dozens of slime related experiments that can be done.

3. Baking soda rockets



4. Lego build days.
 - Lego car races
 - Any type of builds using Lego motors

5. simple balsa plane builds.

Stuff like that.

What I am looking for is ideas along these lines. Something 3rd graders can do, have fun and maybe learn something from.

Anyone have ideas?

Eric

shipto:
big pile of cardboard boxes and glue and/or tape and let their imaginations fly.
might be a bit dangerous but peg guns, maybe could be made safer.
if you have the room and a not too steep hill soapbox racers.

joshagrady:
+1 on the cardboard boxes.

You didn't mention the age of your target group, but I'm assuming early elementary age.

My daughter (almost 8 years old) just got started playing around with an Arduino for her school's science fair project.  Obviously, there was a healthy dose of coaching on my part (but since you're talking about dedicating 2 days a month to the project, that shouldn't be a stumbling point for you) regarding selection of resistors, etc., but the programming was something she was able to work out on her own.  We used Scratch (the visual programming language) and the Scratch 4 Arduino firmware.  The S4A workshop is a great place to start if you do not have prior experience with the platform.

I started the process by explaining what a program is (i.e. a series of well defined, discrete steps that lead to the desired goal), and, placing a ball on the floor in the middle of the room, instructed her to pick it up by going through a program (e.g. walk three steps; take one step to the left; walk three steps; bend; extend arm; grasp ball).  This was sufficient to get her started.  YMMV.

I'm working up an introductory program for the teachers at my daughter's school, as they would like to start using Arduinos in the classroom next year.  As I develop the program, I'd be happy to post the results.

One caveat.  I had purchased an introductory Arduino kit from Banggood.  This kit comes with breadboard, leads, servo, stepper, LED matrix, buttons, LEDs, a mix of resistors, etc.  Why the kit is a bargain for what it contains, I would recommend splurging on a higher quality breadboard and leads.  Far and away the most frustrating part of the entire process for my daughter was fighting to insert low quality leads into the holes on a poorer than low quality breadboard.  (Also, the resistors that came with the kit were the relatively arcane 5 band type, rather than the easier to decipher 4 band sort.)  Since a high quality breadboard and a bundle of good leads of varying lengths will set you back about 10 bucks, there really doesn't seem to be much advantage in burning the kids out on a struggle with imported garbage.

Good luck on what sounds like a very rewarding process.

--Josh   

Manxmodder:
Eric, great project you have there. What about including one of the simple stirling engine designs.

There are a good number of these engine designs that use readily available materials like tin cans and examination gloves for the displacer and power piston available online.

There's also a few small books in print covering the same thing.

Another good source of project ideas suitable for young enquiring minds is the 'Instructables' website.

Link to Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/

OZ.

Sackett:
Not sure what age group you're involved with , but both my girls did mousetrap powered cars in school. Awards for both speed n distance , fun projects. They also did balsa wood projects with a given weight limit on materials, n strength testing. Some of those structures were amazing.

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