STEM Bridges 5th & 6th
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STEM Bridges
5th and 6th class
Materials/equipment required: Making paper bridges was very fun we were put into groups and given 4 sheets of paper, masking tape and 1 pair of scissors. We were given 20 minutes to make our bridges.
How did we make the bridges: First we started off by folding the paper multiple cylinders and then taped it together and laid a sheet of paper on top. We had to make sure it was strong enough to hold up our multiple math books.
How we improved our bridges: We reinforced our bridges with more masking tape then we went around collecting all of the math books, to see who had made the strongest bridge.
How we determined who won: We went around to all the bridges to see which one was
the strongest and the overall winners were Caoimhe Light and Jack Ryan.
What we thought of the STEM project: Overall we thought the project was really cool
and good for how to build things and work together as a team.
written by Orla & Nathan
export_1666463607855.MOVMicrobits
What is a Microbit?
The Microbit is a tiny programmable computer, designed especially for learning and teaching coding.
It has a processor inside it (like the brain of the computer) and has the following:
an accelerometer (for sensing movement).
a compass (for sensing direction).
a microphone.
a speaker.
Bluetooth and USB port for connectivity.
a display consisting of 25 LEDs lights.
two programmable buttons.
and can be powered by either USB or an external battery packs.
What can you do with a Microbit?
What can you do with a Microbit?
The list of things you can program the Microbit to do is nearly endless. You can program the buttons, LEDs and different sensors to create games and turn the Microbit into things like a pedometer, a compass or even a musical instrument.
The list of things you can program the Microbit to do is nearly endless. You can program the buttons, LEDs and different sensors to create games and turn the Microbit into things like a pedometer, a compass or even a musical instrument.
We invested in 32 of the latest version of Microbits this year so each child in the class could code their own. In our list of projects we have planned for this year with Coding Ireland with Microbits we will; make a step counter, compass and thermometer, Bop it Game, Exactly 11, Higher or Lower game, Radio Messages, Morse Code Decoder, Sound Level, Microbit Dice, Chase the Dot, Head Guess Game, Microbit Fruit & Veg Piano and Microbit Build Battle.
Microbit Step Counter
We had so much fun during Maths Week where we coded our microbits as step counters. We then secured them to our wrists with pipecleaners and did laps around the school walk path.
When we came back in we counted our steps and made some challenging maths questions for ourselves.
We were super excited to see that Microbit Educational Foundation had retweeted us on Twitter from our video of our microbit challenge.
We saw that we had been retweeted multiple times for lots of random STEM professionals and others and had gained over 70 likes which encouraged us to look into careers in STEM and keep up our work in the area if STEAMin school.
export_1666278739713.MOVOur TikTok on our step counter which was retweeted.
Sky Wheel/ Carnival Wheel
My friends and I made a sky wheel and it was very fun. Our teacher ordered kits from StemWizz and each group had a challenge to build a project together.
The sky wheel is a large scaled wheel shaped recreation facility.The passenger cabins are hung on the edge of it.The cabin rotates and rises up slowly with the rotation of the wheels so that the passengers can overlook the landscapes from the high.
We made the carnival wheel by engineering a large wheel, next building a pulley system using belts, a propeller, a motor, belt pulleys and a battery box and combined all the parts together to get a wheel rotating in a smooth 360-degree motion.
The sky wheel is battery powered and it was hard to build.It took us about 2 hours to build.It spun very fast.
This project taught us the principles of pulley systems and how they can be applied to move heavy objects along with the advantages of using a multiple pulley system. The project also taught us about wiring a motor to a battery box and using belts on propellers along with engineering concepts by putting all the parts together in a fun way. We will be showing our carnival wheel to others at our Science Show. I really enjoyed this project, it was very fun and interesting.
By Caoimhe 5th Class
Here is our Sky Wheel!
sky wheel .MOVTake a look at our group's finished product and look at it in action!
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