Welcome to Tinkertime!  Today you will be exploring SPACE!!!!!  But first...

Please work respectfully and responsibly with others at your station. What does that look like?

• • • Share materials, 

    • keep noise down....classes around you might be working!

    • be kind to each other and work cooperatively, 

    • keep your working space neat,

    • when directed, clean up your area and look for others to help clean up their area too,

    • pack supplies back neatly in the bin, because another class will be trying these activities.  

STEP 1:  Break into 9 teams.

STEP 2:  Each team will choose a train car.  Each one has a planet (or the sun) written on the bottom.  

STEP 3:  Each team will have 5 tasks...

• • Task 1:  You'll get a coloring sheet of your planet. Do research on what your planet actually looks like, and color it as accurately as possible.

  • Task 2:  Research and choose 3 interesting facts about your planet. Write them on an index card (there are some in the bin).

  • Task 3:  Attach your planet and the fact card to the "Solar System Map" (big blue piece of butcher paper). Make sure your planets are in the right order, based on their distance from the sun!!!! (NOT TO SCALE)

  • Task 4:  The train car now will become your interplanetary space vehicle, powered and steered entirely by magnets...you may decorate it with materials from the bin or use things from your desk or classroom.

  • Task 5:  If time, add obstacles to the solar system to make our space race more challenging! Use objects from the bin or things from you classroom or desk.

STEP 4:  SPACE RACE!!!!!!

• Teams will challenge each other, 2-4 teams at a time, to a race.

• Starting line is the sun.

• The goal is to travel to each planet and then escape the solar system by getting to the end of the butcher paper.

• You may only power & steer your vehicle using the magnetic wand.

• Every time you pass a planet, you have to pass the wand to someone else on your team, to make sure everyone gets turns to drive!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

STEP 4:  Cleanup

Here is a video for the facilitator to use to time your session. Please help each other to pack the cart back up so that it looks just like when we started!  Here is a cleanup countdown video for you!   

If you want more inspiration or ideas, check out the cool videos at the bottom of the page.

More Links and Videos

• The picture of the Magnet car is a link to a web page with more ideas.

• StoryBots is a 15 minute animated video.

• Bill Nye is a 23 minute video about exploring outer space.