Science & Technology of Toys Incursion (P)

Who doesn’t love toys? In this fun and engaging 90-minute incursion, students are transported back to a time when kids didn’t have access to toy stores like we do and had to make their own toys. Students study, design, and make their own toys using materials and components that have been used to create toys past and present. By learning how different toys work, students are able to explore the principles of push, pull, electricity, magnetism, gravity or wind-up energy. By using recycled materials to create toys, students learn a valuable lesson in how materials may be reused and how recycling prevents waste. Our passionate science educators carefully guide students through each step, prompting students to predict, observe and reflect on each activity.

• Students will study, design, and make their own toys.
• They will investigate materials, purpose, sound, and how the toys work.

• Imagine what children did before the presence of toy shops;
• Explore the characteristics and properties of materials and components that are used to create toys past and present;
• Observe how toys move: jump, roll, twist, up and down, and spin;
• Identify safety issues and solve problems;
• Be inspired to create toys using recycled materials.
• Explore how the principles of push and pull are used in the design of toys (e.g. using electricity, magnetism, gravity or wind-up energy, being pushed or pulled, with a motor);

 

1. Design and create a sound toy using string and a cup;

2. Follow a sequence of steps to create a wind up rubber band motor to decorate later.

 

• Objects are made of materials that have observable properties (VCSSU044);
• The way objects move depends on a variety of factors including their size and shape: a push or a pull affects how an object moves or changes shape (VCSSU048);

• Identify how people create familiar designed solutions and consider sustainability to meet personal and local community needs (VCDSTS013);
• Explore how technologies use forces to create movement in designed solutions (VCDSTC014);
• Explore the characteristics and properties of materials and components that are used to create designed solutions (VCDSTC017);
• Explore needs or opportunities for designing, and the technologies needed to realise designed solutions (VCDSCD018);
• Visualise, generate, and communicate design ideas through describing, drawing and modelling (VCDSCD019);
• Use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to produce designed solutions safely (VCDSCD020);
• Use personal preferences to evaluate the success of design ideas, processes and solutions including their care for environment (VCDSCD021);
• Sequence steps for making designed solutions (VCDSCD022);