Energy, Light and Motion

We have begun our unit on Energy, Light and Motion; students know a lot about  these topics. A few things they wondered were... what is a pendulum? How strong does air have to be to move something? How do you change the direction of a moving object? How do you make an object move faster or slower? How does sound travel?

We began making mazes on the carpet, we explored different movements and directions the ball could roll. We built loops and problem solved how to make the maze go over itself and make a bridge.

This week we began taking a look at pendulums. What are they? What can they do? How do they move?
A provocation on a wrecking ball type pendulum was set up in the block area. Students built towers and swung the pendulum to knock them down. They quickly learned that the towers had to be tall enough and thin enough; if their buildings were too stable, they wouldn't fall.

Pictures were taken with a multi-shot option on the camera. The camera takes about twenty photos in quick succession and when put together, the images make a short, stop-motion video.

See our entire collection of pendulum pictures here.

Students are very interested in how the pendulum moves and what it can do, have you seen any pendulums at home or in the community? Some common examples are wrecking balls, grandfather clocks and swing sets.