Re: pinhole PINHOLE

Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

From: Raleigh McLemore (raleighmclemore@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Sep 05 2002 - 14:25:58 PDT 

Message-ID: <20020905212558.19069.qmail@web40201.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 14:25:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Raleigh McLemore <raleighmclemore@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: pinhole PINHOLE

A couple of things I do with younger kids is to make
measuring grids that are "off". I copy a correct
centimeter grid and shrink or enlarge it slightly.
Younder students use their "scientific accurate
rulers" to find the "most accurate" grid from all the
bad ones. Older students estimate how far the grid is
off in %.
You may not be inclined to put up with the mess but
finding a motorcycle repair place that has a small,
light, blown engine to give away can be a fun center
to work on measuring. Never been able to do this with
a class, but a small group center can be fun, if some
basic tool safety is taught and lab precautions,
gloves, safety goggles, etc are used.
I loosen the bolts and screws, then let my older kids
take the beast apart while sorting through the parts.
They give me a sheet of measurements (how long is the
screw, bolt, nut, etc. You can make inside and outside
"calipers" from a student compass and measure bore,
and if you are brave, disassemble the bottom end of
the engine to measure the crankshaft, rods, etc. If
you don't know much about this stuff you might be able
to find a (usually retired) shop teacher or mechanic
to come in and discuss the function of stuff and talk
about the importance of measuring things well. Finish
your unit off by inviting a motorcycle club to drop by
the school. Another thing to raise as measurement
topic is the Challenger disaster...makes me think.

Its a little messy and you have to return the
motorcycle engine to the shop to get it out of your
class, but my fifth graders totally loved working on it.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com

Date view Thread view Subject view Author view Attachment view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Aug 04 2003 - 16:18:06 PDT