automata

In y4 for the last couple of weeks we've been doing a bit of Design Technology. We've made lever mechanisms, like those often found in picture/pop-up books, ie. 2D and with a linear motion (I must take some videos - some were ingenious!). We've now moved on to 3D, with a linear movement being converted into a rotary one. This is the mechanism we constructed out of 'Tech card' and paper fasteners. You pull the lever and the upright column turns ;

 

The children then created their own little automata. A golfer putting;

 

Bees swarming in front of their hive;

 

 

And a ballerina pirouetting in front of an appreciative audience;

 

Next week we're going to get two (or more!) 'figures' to rotate from the one lever movement!