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Matraca
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In this activity, learners create a traditional Mexican noisemaker (a matraca) using cardboard, craft sticks, and a wooden dowel.

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.

Sled Kite
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In this activity, learners build a sled kite that models a type of airfoil called a parawing.

Mini Zoetrope
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In this activity (posted on March 27, 2011), learners follow the steps to construct a mini zoetrope, a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.

Supporting Structures
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In this activity about living things and gravity (page 5 of PDF), learners design and build an exoskeleton or an endoskeleton for an animal of their own invention.

Wind Tubes
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In this activity, learners create and experiment with wind tubes. These tubes are a playful and inventive way to explore the effect that moving air has on objects.

Digger
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In this activity, learners build their own construction cranes using tongue depressors and pushpins.

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.

Maritime Munchies
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In this activity, learners follow simple historical maritime recipes to cook up hardtack and swanky, and then compare the foods they eat to what was served on ships in the past.

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.

Sticky Structures
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In this engineering/design/arts and crafts activity, learners design and build "platforms" or "bridges" that can hold weight, and test which glue makes the strongest structure.

Control a Bird’s Flight
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In this engineering design challenge, learners make a bird and then control its flight with attached strings.

Pop! Rocket Launcher
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In this activity, learners construct a simple air pressure launcher for paper rockets.

Milli's Insulation Investigation
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In this activity on page 2 of the PDF, learners test different materials to find out which is the best insulator.

Papermaking at Home
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Learners will follow a specific process to make their own paper using scrap paper, newspaper, or junk mail.

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.

Investigating Ice Worlds
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In this activity about the solar system, learners use various light sources to examine ice with different components to understand how NASA studies planets and moons from space.

Handheld Water Bottle Rocket & Launcher
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In this activity, learners build handheld rockets and launchers out of PVC pipes and plastic bottles. Use this activity to demonstrate acceleration, air pressure, and Newton's Laws of Motion.

Rubber Band Boat
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In this activity, learners build styrofoam boats powered by twisted rubber bands.

Wind Tube
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In this activity, learners explore moving air and the physics of lift and drag by constructing homemade wind tunnels.