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Project challenge:

spinning ride

Suggested Ages: 3rd – 5th Grades

Build a thrilling theme park ride that spins two of your toys at high speed! BE REFLECTIVE as you test the ride by noticing how you can make it safer and how to fix anything that might need repair.

Engaging Design-It-Yourself projects to inspire young innovators

This is no ordinary DIY project for kids: It’s a step toward becoming an innovator.

 

Every Galileo Design-It-Yourself Challenge teaches the same techniques and mindsets that professional designers an engineers, artists and chefs use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Help your child find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Sharpened #2 pencil
  • 1 corrugated shipping box with one side that’s at least
  • 2″ shorter than the pencil
  • 6+ index cards or thin cardboard (like from a cereal box)
  • Ruler
  • A paint stirring stick (or use your ruler as a material)
  • 24″+ of cotton string or yarn
  • 2 quarters or other small weighted objects like washers
  • 2 small and lightweight toys that are the same weight (like Lego® figurines)

 

Activity GUIDE:

Refer to these steps to keep young innovators on track as they create:

 

1. Cut an opening into one side of the box. (1:18)

 

2. Poke the pencil into the box, then widen the hole with scissors.

 

3. Build the pencil support out of folded index cards or thin cardboard.

 

4. Poke a hole into the side of the box, then put the string through it.

 

5. Tape the string to the pencil.

 

6. Attach the paint stirring stick to the pencil.

 

7. Build seats for your toys.

 

8. Test it out by winding the string around the pencil, then pull on it.

  • Support being reflective—If kids are stuck, work together to figure out how to improve the ride’s safety or how to fix it if it breaks down
  • Ask: Where do you think the rider is falling out?
  • Ask: What can you build to keep the rider seated in the ride?
  • Ask: What can you do to make that part of the ride stronger so it doesn’t break next time?

 

9. Redesign the ride’s safety or durability after each test.

 

More Ideas:

Every project presents opportunities to add your own twists or extensions. Here are some ideas to get you started:

 

  • Innovate On! Use more paper to build ticket booths, stairs, benches, ice cream stands, or anything else you can imagine that would be at an amusement park!
  • Not sure why the riders are falling out? Try filming the ride on your phone, then play it back frame-by-frame to see what’s going on!

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking your child these questions about their project and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • What part of your ride didn’t work at first?
  • How did being reflective help you fix it?

Share!

Great learning can come from sharing successes and failures—to solidify your own experience as an innovator and to inspire others.

 

SHARE WITH galileo

 

Share a photo or video of your creation with the Camp Galileo Anywhere Facebook Community.

 

Share with family and friends

 

Your innovation doesn’t stop with you. Inspire someone else by sharing your project challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your project will give them a new idea.

 

  • Who: someone in your house, a family member, a friend
  • How: in person, on the phone, online
  • When: anytime, starting now!