Sunday, March 24, 2019

2nd Grade Spins!

We have moved onto the second part of unit....motion!  After watching the classic top video by Ray and Charles Eames https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ-VFMymEiE the 2nd graders designed a top that spun the fastest and one that spun the longest. Everyone gets two large red disks, 2 small yellow disks and one green shaft.

It can be tricky to get the disks where
you want them on the shaft.

The contest to see which top spins the fastest!


Techniques used to start the top
differ - fingers or palms.

We discovered that for the top to
 spin, it needs to balance.

How many disks make the best top?

A good design!


Sometimes the shaft breaks, but then we get to test if the
 length of the shaft makes a difference in the way the top spins.

A winner!

The tops keep spinning even when they bump
into objects!



Standing definitely makes it spin faster!



At the end of class, we drew our best designs and explained
why it worked better than other designs.

2nd graders also investigated what happens to designs when they spin.  Two designs were provided for each student to spin.  There was also a blank design, so everyone could create their own spinning design.

 Awesome spinning design!



The two designs totally looked different
when they were spinning.

Trying to have the fastest spinning design.


A new design.

The above design spinning.



It's hypnotizing.


The design is too light to spin without a disk.

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