![]() ![]() 8½ x 11-inch unlined paper (such as blank copier or printer paper).LEGO brick, corner brick 2 x 2 / 45° inside, Element ID: 4218890 (see Figure 1) order from, $1 each allow at least four weeks for delivery.When you release the balloon, kinetic energy is in play. When you inflate the balloon, it stores potential energy. We also have an example of kinetic and potential energy. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction or force. This is the energy of motion that Newton discovered. The car moves from the pressure of the air pushing out of the balloon. The wheel and axle are examples of simple machines, this is a great project when talking about simple machines! Also you need to make sure your balloon is facing the correct way to make the car go forward and not backwards. The tower we built to hold on the balloon needs to be tall enough so the balloon is out of the way of the wheels. We learned a few things as we built our LEGO balloon car about what works well and what doesn’t. We have engineering design, Simple Machines, and Newton’s Third Law of Motion.įirst, the engineering aspect. There are a few different elements in play here. While this activity is tons of fun, there is a lot to learn from the balloon powered car! I love activities that teach, but are also just a blast. I let the kids make them on their own and they loved it!!! The Science Behind the Balloon Powered Car: I used grapes in the class, but at home my kids wanted to make them again with olives. These are yummy and healthy, too. Give it a little nudge and the car travels balloon will propel the car!įinally we made a simple car snack with apple slices, toothpicks and grapes (or olives). Just slice the apples and put 2 toothpicks through each apple and attach 4 grapes or olives for the wheels. Put it in between two little towers with a block on top to attach the balloon. To propel the car, blow up the balloon, then twist it a little to keep the air from escaping. You can use a pre-built LEGO car and add some bricks on top to hold the balloon in place on top of the car, or build your own with 2 sets of wheels. To build these balloon powered cars, you just need to build a basic LEGO car. You can find the series on my YouTube Channel. This is the first in my Learn ~ Explore~ Play series. Watch the video below of me reading this book & my son teaching how to build the LEGO Balloon powered car. My kids have played with these over and over again at home. Next in the lesson, I had some LEGO balloon cars built that use air pressure to push the car. They spent so much time working on these and it was wonderful to hear how creative they were. The back side was blank for them to draw their cars. I gave each of the kids a little paper asking them what they would put in their cars. There are fabulous illustrations that make the kids just giggle.Īfter reading the book to the class, I loved hearing their minds go on about what they wanted to include in their cars that they invented. It was fun to come up with some activities to go along with the book for the class. I knew right away that I wanted to use the book If I Built a Car for our lesson. I teach a little “ Five in a Row” book club at our homeschool co-op and it was my turn to teach last week. It is such a fun story.Īs soon as I read it to my kids they started telling me all of the fun things that they would put into a car that they built. He tells his Dad that their car was OK, but if he built a car it would have all these amazing things like a snack bar, the ability to go on water, under water, fly, drive on autopilot, and more exciting things. The story is about a boy riding in the back of a car with his Dad. This book inspired some fun car activities including our LEGO balloon powered car! (See more Storybook STEM projects) It is called If I Built a Car, by Chris Van Dusen. What I like about it is the creativity that it inspires in young minds. I liked it so much that I ended up buying a copy for our home library. I stumbled across a fabulous book at the library recently. It is a fun STEM activity to do with kids teaching about the science of wind and also engineering! Today we are going to show you how to make a LEGO Balloon Powered Car. ![]()
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