My team has done something like this before. We've put on a sort of "take-apart workshop".
Essentially, we get people to donate various small appliances that they no longer want or don't work (Printers, Computers, blenders, toasters, vacuums, etc.). We then give the students toolboxes and have them take apart an item of their choice and try to find as many simple machines in the item as possible.
The kids have a lot of fun (they get to break things after all
) and they learn a lot too.
Some issues to keep in mind if you try something like this:
- Make sure anything you give the students to take apart has any sharp objects removed if possible (blades from kitchen equipment and such)
- Safety glasses are a must as things can (and do) fly off of the appliances as they are being taken apart
- The kids tend to get their hands dirty doing this, some sort of clean up is helpful. We used a kind of orange soap/ hand sanitizer with silica sand and gave them paper towels to wipe their hands off afterwards.
- Make sure you have a LOT of trash bags. They tend to make a mess.
We got a lot of good feedback from the schools we visited when we put this on. There were quite a few "this was my favorite station" comments from the students as well.
