Design

The Balancing Circus program explores the art and science of balance! Students will experiment firsthand how elementary physics come together to create an exciting performance. Conceived with a nod to artist/engineer Alexander Calder, each circus tests classic experiments at work. Play along and make necessary adjustments while building a mini circus to test out balance and stability. Decorate your circus to reflect the energy and excitement a circus brings to the audience. 

A battery's current flows in one direction. The clever arrangement of switches can reverse the direction of flow through a motor. Construct a controller with a battery, motor, and ultralight buggy that can go forward or backward. Learn wiring logic, precision, and troubleshooting. Test and play, experiment and investigate.
 

A popular project that teaches game design (beginnings, middles and ends), logic (rewards for difficulty), marble movement (caroms, momentum) and creative design (good games must still attract players.) A rare exploration of the work of play. Use marbles, a launcher, hurdles, and more to devise and personalize your own Pinball Machine. Figure out your own rules, scoring, and goals. Play with friends, test, adjust and keep going.

Explore the ancient history and challenging mechanics of catapults. Rubber bands power this model. Experiment with the concepts of force and motion and test your projects out with varying degrees of power by changing the number of rubber bands used and the position of the ping pong balls. 

Safe for people and places when used with the ping pong ball provided.

Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s self propelled cart design in 1478, students construct cars powered by rubber bands and measure their performance. They will test their cars, make alterations and predictions. Students will gain lively insights into the mechanics, measurement and math of motion. Force and Motion, experimentation, and design all come together to make new discoveries. Great for a followup program on creative elaboration. Exploration and problem solving become obvious when a student has to question why someone's car went further or faster.

Construct a music machine. Hear the logic of Leonardo's mind at work as he invents the first modern robot, an automatic drummer whose rhythms can be reprogrammed flexibly and whose tempos adjust automatically. Invent your own cadences and rhythms.

Build a windmill with adjustable vanes. You will discover that in order to make it work, the vanes have to be adjusted just right to turn fast enough to work. Then apply that wind power to make it work. How? By making it lift weight, you can observe just how much power output it can produce. You will discover the problem of scale and its limitations but the potential is there.

Understand the gearing needed to manage the lift. About the relationship between speed and power. It's not necessarily intuitive.

Build a remarkable drawing machine from a 1913 design, adapted by our apprentices and staff. Since its first adaptation, it's been revised many more times. 

We will teach you some ways to program it. Then you will go on to invent your own programs. Can you decipher the code of a drawing?

Experiment with three variables. Observe the slight variations in your drawings by adjusting these variables. Postulate, play, and create beautiful works of algorithmic art!

With modular wooden pieces, wire and rubber bands, construct a hand with fingers. The parts will work in a dozen basic configurations.

Test your design: Retrieve a lifesaver, a penny, and a marble from a cup. Pick up a marker and draw. Pop a balloon. Propose your own challenge. Invent games that two hands can play.

Outcomes: Each task may require specific adjustments. Some hand configurations are more versatile than others. Discover the interplay between tasks and design.
 

Study motion by building a spiral track for a marble to follow. Understand gravity, friction, inertia. Do you build from the bottom up or the top down? Make discoveries while creating a fun game.