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Heavy Lifting: Design Squad
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In this engineering challenge, learners design and build a crane out of cardboard to see how heavy a load it can lift.
Pencil Drop
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In this demonstration, learners observe as a bottle is placed on a table with wooden hoop balanced on top and a pencil balanced on top of the hoop.

Eddy Currents
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In this activity related to magnetism and electricity, learners discover that a magnet falls more slowly through a metallic tube than it does through a nonmetallic tube.

Rubber Band Racer
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In this activity, learners construct speedy vehicles made out of paper plates and powered by twisted rubber bands.

Chain Reaction II
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In this hands-on activity, learners use an assortment of (mainly household) items to complete Rube Goldberg-type challenges.

Catapult
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In this activity, learners build mini catapults using paint paddles and a spoon. Use this activity to introduce learners to forces and projectile motion.

Magnetic Lines of Force
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With a magnet, iron fillings, and a bottle, you can create a cool demonstration about magnetic lines of force: the fillings will arrange themselves within the magnet's magnetic field.

Build A Dome
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In this activity, learners explore the structural strength of triangles by creating their own free-standing geodesic dome out of plastic straws.

Leaning Tower of Pasta
Learners build structures from spaghetti and marshmallows to determine which structures are able to handle the greatest load.

Swing in Time
Learners build and investigate pendulums of different lengths. They discover that the longer the string of the pendulum, the longer the time it takes to swing.

How Do Things Fall?
Learners engage in close observation of falling objects. They determine it is the amount of air resistance, not the weight of an object, which determines how quickly an object falls.

Solve The Fall
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In this twist on a classic design challenge, learners will try to stop a bouncy ball from bouncing as they explore how to control the fall of an object.

Homemade Rube Goldberg Machine
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In this fun and, at times, hilarious force and motion activity, learners will use household objects to build a crazy contraption and see how far they can get a tennis ball to move.

Simple Spinner
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In this activity, learners create a tiny electric, motorized dancer. Learners use the interactions of magnetism and electric current to make a wire spin, while displaying the Lorentz Force in action.

Breaking Beams
Learners investigate stress and strain by designing, building, and testing beams made from polymer clay.

Marshmallow Puff Tube
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In this demonstration/activity, learners observe as a regular size marshmallow is blown through a tube made from a manila file folder.

3 Classes of Levers
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In this physics activity (page 3 of the PDF), learners will move a load using a lever of each of the 3 classes. They will explore the differences between these classes and which are more effective.

Rubber Band newton Scale
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In this activity, learners make a simple spring-like scale using a rubber band instead of a spring, and calibrate the scale in newtons (N).