The Hillwood Herald is the news blog of Hillwood Academic Day School. Written and published by the school’s upper grades (fifth through eighth), this blog tracks student, staff, and family happenings at the school.
Erion, Nikita, and I made a rubber band car. We made it differently from the directions told us to, because we wanted it to behave differently. We also had some ideas about how we might make it better. You can read the basic instructions on the PBS Kids website.
Deviating from the directions worked for us! We beat Jake and Zeke's rubber band powered car in a race. The car was fast and could last, or run, a long. We used putty, duct tape, skewers, faucet washers, CDs, and a rubber band to make the vehicle. The cardboard was 5 by 6 inches long. The rubber band car had a extra pair of wheels and customized wheels.
The following video clip shows a giant rubber band car made for humans to ride. It is from the Makers' Faire in Austin. The two DESIGN SQUAD engineers are not Adam or Judy. Rather, they are hosts from an earlier season of the show.
Judy and Adam, engineers working with PBS Kids DESIGN SQUAD, made a new challenge, called the kick stick. The items that make the kick stick possible are paint sticks, duct tape, a battery holder, a battery, aluminum foil, a washer,wire, a ping-pong ball, and popsicle stick.
The kick stick is like an automatic ping pong ball hitter. First, you stick the washer on the motor. Then put the battery in the battery holder, and connect the wires so the motor will work. Check to see if your washer spins. Tape some paint sticks together to make that the handle on your automatic ping-pong ball hitter. Then attach your motor to the sticks. Make a blade with duct tape or your popsicle stick, by attaching them to the washer connected to the motor. Now see if your blade(s) spin. Now test it out with a ping-pong ball.
You can see Judy and Adams video at the Design Squad website. Also, you can read older Hillwood Heraldposts — both Adam and Judy were nice enough to come to Hillwood, so we could interview them for this blog.
On January 26,2011, Judy and Adam will have a new show coming out on PBS Kids T.V. The show will inspire kids to "Dream it,Build it, and Live it." The show is expected to attract families, tweens, and teenagers to watch the show. Over 10 episodes will be premiered with the help of the co-hosts Judy and Adam.
Also, The Hillwood Herald has been reporting on Judy and Adam for the last month. You can read our posts and watch how our challenges went here.
Today, we will have a special guest, Lindsey Z. She has been tapped for San Francisco's Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy. She'll be here to tell us about this organization and what it might mean for the upper-grade class.
Feel free to visit the DESIGN SQUAD website to view briefly the latest episode. Then, begin your next DESIGN SQUAD Challenge. REMEMBER to photograph it with the digital camera, so it can be uploaded to the DESIGN SQUAD site later.
Kinetic Sculpture
Click on the link to the video on the right-hand side of the page. Slide the video bar to the time stamp of 26:21, and then watch Judy and Adam make their Kinetic Sculpture.
Angela
Faryn
Clara
Alysen
Jake
Zeke
Camryn (Yes, Camryn, we're still posting possible assignments for you! You can easily do this challenge.)
