Mechanical Systems
Year 4 - DT - Autumn
Year 4 - DT - Autumn
Design and make a slingshot car
Design
• Designing a shape that reduces air resistance.
• Drawing a net to create a structure from.
• Choosing shapes that increase or decrease speed as a result of air resistance.
• Personalising a design.
Make
• Measuring, marking, cutting and assembling with increasing accuracy.
• Making a model based on a chosen design.
Evaluate
• Evaluating the speed of a final product based on: the effect of shape on speed and the accuracy of workmanship on performance.
Technical Knowledge
• To understand that all moving things have kinetic energy.
• To understand that kinetic energy is the energy that something (object/person) has by being in motion.
• To know that air resistance is the level of drag on an object as it is forced through the air.
• To understand that the shape of a moving object will affect how it moves due to air resistance.
Chassis
Energy
Kinetic
Mechanism
Air resistance
Design
Structure
Graphics
Research
Model
Template
In Year 3, the children explored pneumatics to design and make a pneumatic toy.
In Year 6, the children will experiment with a range of cams to design and make an automata toy.