Creative Learning Activities

Boats

Build on your kids excitement by having them make Boats. Water, boats, and kids go together. By directing the activity you can use their love of all things wet and their energy to learn an incredibly wide spectrum of the required science content.

Watch the joy on their faces as they figure out how to make their boats go. They will generate tons of ideas and test them quickly in this maritime collection of activities. Check out the activities:

• Foghorns
• Aluminum Canoes
• Gravity Boats
• Pirate Ships of the Caribbean
• Balloon Powered Boats
• Rubber Band Powered Boats
• Rocket Boats

Boats - Electric

The tidal wave of excitement you generate with Boats will just get bigger when you offer them this module of activities. Tell your class that they will make an entire fleet of boats powered by batteries and you will have their undivided attention.

The great thing about Boats Electric is that kids can think up their own propulsion systems and build the models in no time at all. They will learn the science on their own as they engineer models that work. You’re free to watch what’s happening and to add vocabulary they need to pass the required exams. Get your camera ready because you will want to record these models as the kids make them:

• Swamp Boats
• Electric Paddle Boats
• Motor Duck
• Electric Boats
• Solar Boats

Electric Motor Project

Mention "Electric Motor Projects” and you’ll get rapt attention. Every kid will be ready to jump in to make an electric car or boat or mess around with solar cells. Now that you have their attention they will be ready to learn much of the physical science content. The best parts are that they will learn it through exploration and discovery, and they will love the experience.

The creative learning activities included in this module are:

• Propeller Cars
• Swamp Boats
• Electric Boats
• Solar-Powered Cars
• Motor Duck
• Generating Electricity
• Theme Park Rides

Flying Things

Give learning an aerodynamic lift with our Flying Things module. We take what kids like to do - make flying things out of simple materials - and turn it into a stratospheric learning experience. Take off and have fun learning.

The following nine creative learning activities are included in this module:

• Aerobie and Plane
• Boomerangs – Cardboard
• Boomerangs - Wood
• Frisbee
• Hand-Powered Helicopter
• Helicopters (paper)
• Kites
• Styrene Airplanes
• Plane and Launcher

Kids Invent! Mechanical Toys

Remember those horrible lessons on simple machines? This isn’t one of those. This is kids working in teams to make gizmos and gadgets. Their only limitation is their own imagination. They use cranks, cams, levers, gears, belts, and motors to make fun and whimsical creations.

Because they are self-directed kids work incredibly hard and learn much more than you could teach them in the same period of time. Prime the pump by showing them a few examples from the curriculum and get out of their way as they rush to assemble wonderful widgets.

• Design and build simple robots
• Program a computer to operate the robot
• Design and create a web page
• Understand what a business plan is
• Understand the basic features of the US Patent system
• Design and build simple DC circuits
• Use a variety of hand tools
• Present their ideas to a management team

Kids love messing around with magnets and electricity. In this series of activities they start at the basics – understanding what magnets are and how they interact with the earth’s magnetic field. They build a compass and see how accurately it points to the North Pole. Then they make magnets – electromagnets – and test them and improve them so they can pick up more paper clips. Making electric-powered cars allows kids to think of how electricity and magnetism interact to make motion. Finally, they make electricity and experiment with motor-generators.

Magnetism and Electricity includes the following four creative learning activities:
1. Make a Magnet, Make a Compass
2. Make an Electromagnet
3. Propeller Cars
4. Generating Electricity

Model Cars

You know your kids will love making model cars so why not get the four activity guides together and save? This compendium covers: Gravity Cars, Balloon Cars, Propeller Cars, and Electric Cars.

Kids want to learn when they’re making Model Cars. They want to know how to make their cars go farther and faster. They want to experiment to see if two motors will be faster than one or if adding weights makes their car go farther.

This is the idea: organize the learning so kids love doing it. They’ll learn so much, so quickly and have so much fun that they won’t want to stop. We’ve given these activities throughout the world and the results are always the same: "Can we make cars again?”

What do they learn: many of the physical science standards plus the methods of science through hands-on, open-ended engagement. Friction, gravity, potential and kinetic energy, and tons more.

Model Cars - Advanced

Once you used the Model Cars module with your kids, they will beg for more. Up the ante – the work and thinking required – by having them jump into Advanced Cars. Same concept – make learning so engaging that kids don’t want to stop – but more difficult projects.

Watch their faces when you tell them that they get to build these models:

• Hovercraft
• Rubber band racer
• Motor and gear drive
• Mouse trap powered car
• Cable cars