Make Your Own Spinner
We had purchased kits to make spinners from the 20th UK 2020 Independent Trip Unit for Engineering Month (see instructions below) and brought them out tonight. Each Guide had a design template, cardboard and a bearing to make her spinner. Each design was unique!
Spaghetti Structures
Earlier in the year, we had a request to the do 'spaghetti and marshmallow building', which fit in well with our theme. Teams worked with raw spaghetti and mini marshmallows to build different structures.
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Bridge Building
To test our engineering skills further, we had a Bridge Building contest! Bridges were made from a strip of paper attached with masking tape between two tables 12 inches apart. We had to be creative with the weights, and used the scissors, rules and glue sticks from the supply box to test each bridge!
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Design Your Own Invention
Week Two was devoted to all things inventing. We started out by learning about the inventors of things we are all familiar with, including Frank Epperson (Popsicles), George Nissen (Trampoline), Louis Braille (Braille), and Albert Sadacca (Christmas Lights) before turning our attention to creating our own inventions. Each Guide or group was asked to come up with a invention that a girl their age could use to make day-to-day things easier or the community a better place. They also had to think about what their invention would cost to make, design a blueprint, and build a prototype. We didn't quite make it to the prototype stage, but everyone had fun coming up with unique inventions, including:
- Self-Building Houses
- Infoggable Mirror
- Forever Hot Mug
- Self-Cooling Computer
- Magic Detangler
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Links:
- Spinner Activity Instructions (20th UK 2020 Independent Trip Unit)
- Invent It, Build It (PBS Kids Design Squad)
- Entrepreneurs and Inventions (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City)
