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Art Cars
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In this activity, learners design miniature cars. Learners can create a telephone car, soccer car, merry-go-round car, or any other theme car they can imagine.

Push Pull Painter
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In this activity, learners create painting machines that can paint moving forwards and backwards.

Motion Picture
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During this hands-on activity, learners are briefly exposed to moviemaking and animation, when they create their own thaumatropes.

Thaumatrope Illusion
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Design and create an optical illusion toy that makes two pictures appear to become one. This is called a thaumatrope and will allow the learner to investigate the phenomenon of persistence of vision.

Micro Automata
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In this activity, learners build small animated toys that move.

Cranking Bird
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In this activity, learners build a mini crank machine to make a bird "fly." This engineering activity introduces learners to automata, rotational motion, cranks and cams.

Go Fly a Kite
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In this hands-on activity, children create their own kites that can fly indoors. Learners are exposed to basic concepts of gravity and air resistance.

Bearings for Your Whirligig
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Experiment with friction and make bearings for a whirligig! This activity is a nice introduction to friction and bearings and demonstrates why bearings are useful for spinning.

Lever Cowboy
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In this activity, learners build a figure that moves and "comes to life" when they pull its string.

Dance Pad Mania
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Make your own "Dance Dance Revolution" dance pad! In this design challenge activity, learners work in teams to build a dance pad that lets you use your feet to sound a buzzer or flash a light.

Tactile Mazes
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In this activity (15th activity on the page) about the sense of touch, learners use glue and cardboard to construct a maze they use with their eyes closed.

Spinning Tops
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Create your own spinning top, and explore color, shapes and spinning. This activity contains instructions for making your spinning top, and tips on how to design and decorate it.

Straws and Airplanes
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Create airplanes from straws and geometric shapes. Test them out to see how far they can fly, or how accurately they can be aimed.

Magnetic Seesaw
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In this activity, learners build a seesaw powered by magnets.

Carousel Pump
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In this activity, learners build a carousel toy that spins when pushed down.

Wandering Wands
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In this activity, learners construct wands that play different notes depending on information from light sensors programmed via a PICO Cricket.

Hydraulic Car
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In this activity, learners build cars using syringes and water-powered hydraulics. Learners construct the car frame out of cardboard and set up a hydraulic system to raise and lower the car.

Make a Garbage Bag Kite
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Make a kite out of a garbage bag, shower curtain, painting tarp--anything light, thin, flexible and plastic!

All Wound Up
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In this activity, learners build a racecar using only a rubber band, spool, straw, and paper clip! This racer is a classic toy that zips across a flat surface.

Zig Zag Bopper
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In this activity, learners build a machine made of craft sticks to multiply the levering motion of their hands and create a device that bends and extends.