Have you ever seen something in the world that is balanced in an interesting or puzzling way? Have you wondered how it stays balanced without falling over? This unit launches with art sculptures that do just this – the sculptures balance and move in ways that make students wonder how they work. At the beginning of the unit, students experience a couple of different types of sculptures that balance and move in interesting ways. Through a series of investigations, students develop ideas about the multiple forces acting on a sculpture to keep it upright and not fall over, or to create predictable motion. Students plan and carry out investigations to test what works and does not work to design sculptures. The unit then re-anchors with a new type of sculpture – one that moves in interesting ways using magnets with nothing making contact. Through further investigations, students learn about the size and direction of forces between magnets and between magnets and some metal objects. Students then apply these ideas about magnets to design an object and device that solves a problem.
Lessons
Lesson Set 1: How can we design sculptures to balance and move in predictable ways?
Lesson Set 2: How can we use magnets to design sculptures and devices that solve problems?