Wheels - working with wheels and axles

Age 9-11 years
First published 2011

This comprehensive resource comes in two PowerPoint presentations, in Teachers and Children's versions. It follows a step by step approach to creating moving vehicles involving fixed and moving axles and wheels. Axles are also used for winding up, windmills and water wheels etc and this should be seen as examples, allowing children to develop their own ideas and designs after following the ideas within these examples. Different ways of attaching wheels and axles are covered including using tape, using the vehicle body to support the axle, straws, shaped card, clothes pegs and commercial kits, which can be used for focused practical tasks. Throughout there are teacher tips and budget busting ideas, such as re-using packaging by turning it inside out, and has an example of a well, with included template, to act as an alternative to vehicles. You should encourage your class to develop their own ideas and solutions to meet user needs and the children’s version of the presentation provides practical guidance without prescribing how the products will turn out.

Others in the series:
Are you Teaching Food in Primary D&T?
Working with sliders and levers
Joining and fastening fabrics
Designing with textiles
Working with Plastics
Developing handmade switches
Gears and Pulleys
Levers and linkages - Poster and Support Pack
Working with paper straws