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CreateKit Mechanical Grabber Kit

Students express creative engineering skills as they design and build a machine to lift, hold, and throw a ball!
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Item# 36-550
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Working in small teams, students conceptualize, sketch, and build a mechanical grabber to perform tasks. After brainstorming and sketching their idea, they use balsa wood, popsicle sticks, straws, string, tape, and other provided materials to build their grabber. They can also incorporate a hydraulics kit into their design to discover how it provides a mechanical advantage when holding, moving, or launching a table tennis ball. This allows them to experiment with pneumatic and hydraulic systems to learn about compressible and incompressible substances. Students use the Engineering Design Process to work through any issues they may discover when testing their design. In the process, they learn how to make changes to improve their design. Included lesson direction highlights activity ideas to get class activities started, details setup instructions, activities by grade level, learning objectives, and teaching suggestions to expand lessons. Accommodates 24 students. Recommended for Middle School and up.

Kit includes:

  • Craft Sticks, Pack of 1,000
  • String, 1 Spool
  • Cardboard, 100 Sheets
  • Straws, Pack of 500
  • Tape, 6 Rolls
  • Hydraulics Kits, 2 Ea
  • Brads, 200 Ea
  • Table Tennis Balls, 24 Ea
  • Balsa Wood, 4 Packs

Next Generation Science Standards*:

  • 3-5-ETS1-1: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

  • 3-5-ETS1-2: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

  • 3-5-ETS1-3: Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

  • 3-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

  • 3-PS2-2: Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

  • 4-PS3-4: Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

  • MS-ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment.

  • MS-ETS1-2: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

  • MS-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.

  • MS-PS2-2: Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.

*The Next Generation Science Standards are a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.