We build to discover ourselves. Common arms, legs, heads and feet can be shaped, assembled and decorated to create the infinite variety that we are. Blockheads can tell stories, reenact history, represent heroes, display the costumes of distant lands or unleash imagination. A universal tool for learning.
A basic vocabulary of movements controls every mechanical device. Leonardo daVinci identified and drew the most important of these. Learn one of three classic arrangements to control the direction, speed and shape of movement. Invent an artful application for your device. Then, connect yours to someone else's machine and let them work together with a set or series of pulleys to combine movement and meaning.
Water is the perfect laboratory for experiment. Construct a boat. How will water test its materials, balance, and buoyancy? Test your work in our Water Learning Lab (May - Sept). Choose our traditional Tug or Fishing Boat, or the new squirting, blinking Fire Boat.
Water was the teacher Leonardo loved best. He studied its tiniest droplets and its shattering waves. He envisioned boats the future would bring. Construct his paddlewheel boat and conduct experiments that Leonardo proposes for all students of science.
The Whitney Relay is a set of interconnectable parts that lets students master the art and science of energy transfer in the tradition of the Rube Goldberg Machine or its contemporary Japanese masterpiece: the Pythagoras Switch. Each student receives 5 ramps, 8 marbles, 6 blocks, and assorted parts to construct a chain reaction that could include your whole class. Thoughtful lessons in mechanics, invention and teamwork.
