Máquina Simple

Vivian just finished her máquina simple unit of inquiry at school. For weeks dinner table conversations at home centered around poleas and rampas and tornillos and finally she had to dream up a problem to solve it with a simple machine that she and I would build and she would take to school for the exhibition. One day she returned from school with a plan. She was going to use a polea to build an elevator so she could get things that her little brother wanted from shelves to tall for him to reach. Evan is pictured crying a healthy stream of tears.

The next day Vivian found a cardboard tube from a roll of paper that she wanted to use for the pulley. I built a little cardboard contraption and added the tube and a shoelace and the model was done. Then I cut up pieces for the real machine.  Vivian glued them together. I drilled a couple of holes and Vivian added some toothpicks and a tin of pancake mix and took the finished machine to school. It worked pretty well and Vivian and her friends showed off some amazing machines at their exhibition. You can see Evan listening and watching.

I don't think she's going to be a nerd. But she has the capability to. If she wanted.