Junior Engineers: build, launch and robots

In this session, children design, build and test their own machines and robots. The instructor brings small motors, gears and building materials, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Each session is built around one science concept, explained by the instructor and then tested by the children in two or three hands-on experiments. The 1 hour session, RoboCreators, covers how a spinning off-centre weight can make a robot move. The 2 hour session adds Catapult Engineering Lab, on how stretching a material stores energy. The 4 hour session adds TechInsect & PropelBot, on how a motor turns electricity into movement, and Engineering Bridges, on how changing a shape makes a material stronger.

Junior Einsteins Science Club® is an award-winning programme. This session enriches the science strands of the plan d’études: Découverte du monde par tous les sens in cycle 1, and Éveil aux sciences, sciences humaines et naturelles in cycles 2 to 4.

Learning objectives

RoboCreators

Children can explain that a spinning off-centre weight can make a robot move.
Children can build a scribble bot that draws.
Children can build a bristlebot that moves on its own.

Catapult Engineering Lab

Children can explain that stretching or bending a material stores energy.
Children can build a working catapult.
Children can measure how far their catapult launches a ball.

TechInsect & PropelBot

Children can explain that a motor turns electricity into movement.
Children can build a vibrating bug bot.
Children can build a propeller car that moves along a table.

Engineering Bridges

Children can explain that changing a material’s shape can make it stronger.
Children can test how many books a paper pillar holds.
Children can build a straw bridge across a gap.

Junior Engineers: build, launch and robots

In this session, children design, build and test their own machines and robots. The instructor brings small motors, gears and building materials, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Learning objectives

RoboCreators

Children can explain that a spinning off-centre weight can make a robot move.
Children can build a scribble bot that draws.
Children can build a bristlebot that moves on its own.

Catapult Engineering Lab

Children can explain that stretching or bending a material stores energy.
Children can build a working catapult.
Children can measure how far their catapult launches a ball.

TechInsect & PropelBot

Children can explain that a motor turns electricity into movement.
Children can build a vibrating bug bot.
Children can build a propeller car that moves along a table.

Engineering Bridges

Children can explain that changing a material’s shape can make it stronger.
Children can test how many books a paper pillar holds.
Children can build a straw bridge across a gap.

Junior Medics: body and medical technology

In this session, children explore how the body works and build simple medical models. The instructor brings stethoscope kits and model heart valves, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Each session is built around one science concept, explained by the instructor and then tested by the children in two or three hands-on experiments. The 1 hour session, Mission MedTech, covers the heart as a pump children can hear. The 2 hour session adds Mission MedTech 2, on how valves keep blood moving one way. The 4 hour session adds Pumping Heart, on what blood is made of and how the heart’s four chambers work, and Brain Olympics, on how the brain sends signals to muscles.

Learning objectives

Mission MedTech

Children can build a working stethoscope from a funnel and tube.
Children can compare their own heartbeat before and after exercise.
Children can build a string and straw robot hand.

Mission MedTech 2

Children can explain that valves keep blood moving in one direction.
Children can build a model of a one-way heart valve.
Children can clear a blocked artery model using a stent.

Pumping Heart

Children can name the four parts of blood.
Children can label the four chambers of the heart on a diagram.
Children can compare their pulse before and after exercise.

Brain Olympics

Children can explain that the brain sends signals to muscles.
Children can measure their reaction time with a ruler drop test.
Children can describe what changed when they wrote with their other hand.

Junior Physicists: electricity and invisible forces

In this session, children explore invisible forces and work directly with real physics equipment. The instructor brings specialist gear, including a Van de Graaff generator and a plasma ball, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Each session is built around one science concept. The instructor explains it, and the children test it themselves in two or three hands-on experiments. The 1 hour session, Plasma Ball, covers static electricity. The 2 hour session adds Van de Graaff 2, on why like charges push apart. The 4 hour session adds Zesty Zap & Spud Spark, on fruit and vegetable batteries, and Make Your Own Compass, on how Earth acts like a giant magnet.

Learning objectives

Plasma Ball

Children can explain that static electricity builds up when some materials rub together.
Children can sort common materials into conductors and insulators.
Children can describe what happened to the fluorescent tube near the plasma ball.

Van de Graaff 2

Children can explain that like charges push each other apart.
Children can describe what happened to the tinsel when the dome was charged.
Children can name one everyday example of static electricity.

Zesty Zap & Spud Spark

Children can explain that fruit and vegetables can act like a battery.
Children can build a lemon cell and a potato cell.
Children can compare the two cells they built.

Make Your Own Compass

Children can explain that Earth acts like a giant magnet.
Children can magnetise a needle.
Children can float their needle and check which way it points against a real compass.

Climate & Sustainability: water, wind and weather

In this session, children investigate water, wind and weather like young engineers. The instructor brings filter materials and a working anemometer kit, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Each session is built around one science concept, explained by the instructor and then tested by the children in two or three hands-on experiments. The 1 hour session, Engineering Clean Water, covers why water needs several treatment stages before it’s safe to use. The 2 hour session adds Wild Wind, on how uneven heating from the sun creates wind. The 4 hour session adds Storm Watch Lab, on how air pressure drives the weather, and Climate Quest, on the greenhouse effect and how greenhouse gases trap heat.

Learning objectives

Engineering Clean Water

Children can explain why water passes through several stages before it’s safe.
Children can build a layered filter and describe how the water changed.
Children can put the stations of a water treatment system in order.

Wild Wind

Children can explain that wind is cooler air moving in as warm air rises.
Children can build a pinwheel that turns in moving air.
Children can explain what an anemometer measures.

Storm Watch Lab

Children can explain that changes in air pressure help drive the weather.
Children can describe how their barometer shows a change in air pressure.
Children can build a wind vane and use it to name a compass direction.

Climate Quest

Children can explain that greenhouse gases trap heat and warm the air.
Children can compare how melting ice on land and floating ice affect the water level.
Children can list ways to cut their own carbon footprint.

Junior Explorers: the living world and extreme environments

In this session, children investigate the living world, from glowing algae to polar survival. The instructor brings UV lights and a container of living bioluminescent algae, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Each session is built around one science concept, explained by the instructor and then tested by the children in two or three hands-on experiments. The 1 hour session, Glowing Explorations, covers bioluminescence, the light some living things make. The 2 hour session adds Blubber Gloves, on how polar animals survive the cold. The 4 hour session adds Dive Deep, on density and buoyancy, and Biomimicry, on designs copied from nature.

Learning objectives

Glowing Explorations

Children can explain that bioluminescence is light made by a chemical reaction inside a living thing.
Children can tell bioluminescence from fluorescence using one example of each.
Children can describe what happened when they shook the container of living algae.

Blubber Gloves

Children can explain that blubber insulates an animal’s body against the cold.
Children can compare how a gloved hand and a bare hand feel in ice water.
Children can match an animal to its cold-weather adaptation.

Dive Deep

Children can build a working Cartesian diver.
Children can explain that squeezing the bottle makes the diver sink because the air inside is squashed.
Children can predict whether an object will sink or float and record whether they were right.

Biomimicry

Children can explain that biomimicry means copying a design found in nature.
Children can use straws to show how a butterfly drinks through its proboscis.
Children can name one feature of an animal or plant that inspired a human design.

Junior Astronauts: space and rockets

In this session, children investigate gravity, air pressure and the forces that get a rocket off the ground. The instructor brings a gravity well and rocket launchers, so the school has nothing to prepare.

Each session is built around one science concept, explained by the instructor and then tested by the children in two or three hands-on experiments. The 1 hour session, Out of This World, covers gravity and how it keeps planets in orbit around the Sun. The 2 hour session adds Rocket Races, on how a rocket pushes itself forward. Rockets launch outdoors when the weather allows. The 4 hour session adds Junior Astronaut Training, on air pressure, and Bernoulli’s Flying Machines, on the four forces of flight.

Learning objectives

Out of This World

Children can explain that gravity keeps planets in orbit around the Sun.
Children can put the planets in order from the Sun.
Children can describe how a marble moves around the gravity well.

Rocket Races

Children can explain that a rocket moves forward by pushing gas out the back.
Children can launch a balloon rocket along a line.
Children can build a bottle rocket from vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.

Junior Astronaut Training

Children can explain that air pressure can hold water inside an upside-down glass.
Children can describe what happens to a marshmallow in a vacuum.
Children can launch a film canister pop rocket.

Bernoulli’s Flying Machines

Children can name the four forces that act on a plane.
Children can describe how a ping-pong ball behaves in an air stream.
Children can build a glider that flies.

SkillsBooster Sciences

This SkillsBooster brings together the basic sciences. The pupils complete a quest together, in which they must solve a variety of scientific and mathematical tasks and experiments. Topics such as electricity, basic chemistry and physics, biology and mathematics are tested in a playful way.

Schoulprogramm vum Naturmusée

Den Naturmusée bitt Iech eng ganz Rei pädagogesch Aktivitéiten, souwuel am/rondrëm de Musée, ëm är Schoul, an engem Naturgebitt oder an engem vun eise Camionen.

An eisen Atelier’en dauche mer an an di faszinéierend Welt vun der Natur an der Wëssenschaft. Ob Biologie, Geologie oder Astronomie – fir jidfereen ass eppes dobäi.

Am weidere Reservéierungsprozess kënnt der déi jeweileg Aktivitéiten auswielen, déi der iech och direkt hei kënnt ukucken:

Schoulprogramm Naturmusée

Am Bësch aktiv – Sënneserfahrungen an der Natur

De Bësch bitt eng Villfalt u Geräischer, Gerécher, Faarwen, Formen a Strukturen, déi d’Kanner mat alle Sënner entdecke kënnen. Duerch gezielt Aktivitéite ginn si invitéiert, hir Ëmwelt méi bewosst wouerzehuelen, genee nozelauschteren, ze spieren, ze richen an Detailer ze entdecken, déi am Alldag dacks onbemierkt bleiwen.

Spilleresch Sënnesaufgaben, kleng Sichopträg an Experimenter mat Naturmaterialie fërderen d’Wouerhuelen, d’Konzentratioun an d’Opmierksamkeet. Gläichzäiteg entsteet en direkten a perséinleche Bezuch zur Natur. D’Kanner léieren, hir Andréck ze beschreiwen, mateneen ze vergläichen an hir Ëmwelt aus verschiddene Perspektiven ze erliewen.

D’Inhalter ginn dem Alter, dem Entwécklungsstand an de Besoine vun der Klass ugepasst a kënnen och mat anere Léierberäicher oder Schoulprojete verbonne ginn.

Zilgrupp: Cycle 1–4
Duerchféierung: Mobil duerch ganz Lëtzebuerg
Dauer: Variabel, mindestens 3 Stonnen; eemoleg oder als Serie vu méi Atelieren

Remarque: Kombinéierbar mat aneren Themen

Op de Spuere vum Biber

Wou a wéi lieft de Biber? Wat ësst en a wéi iwwerbréckt hien de Wanter? Wéi eng Spueren hannerléisst de Biber? All dëse Froe gi mir wärend dem Dag op d’Spuer.