lego yacht tutorial

• Pre-K & Kindergarten
• Teacher Resources
• Request a meeting

Can a land yacht sail into the wind? Investigate how invisible forces can change an object's motion and how this force acts from a distance.

• Review the online student material. Use a projector to share this material with your students during the lesson.
• Make sure that you've covered Newton’s three laws of motion in an earlier lesson.
• Consider the abilities and backgrounds of all of your students. Differentiate the lesson to make it accessible to everyone. See the Differentiation section below for suggestions.
• Set up the fans on the floor, allowing at least 3 yards in front of each, so the land yachts have room to move. Use a strip of tape to mark a starting position in front of each fan (perpendicular to the fan).

( Whole Class, 5 Minutes )

• Watch the student video here, or access it via the online student material.

• Facilitate a quick discussion about which force makes a land yacht move.
• Which forces did you see in action when watching the sailboat and kite in the video? (pull/push)
• Which force made the sailboat move? (It was the push force of the wind.)
• In what situations does a sailboat not work? (If the wind is blowing straight toward the sailboat, the boat can't sail directly forward into the wind.)
• Tell students that they're going to build a land yacht, and investigate how wind force can change its motion.

( Small Groups, 30 Minutes )

• Ask the students to work in pairs to build the Land Yacht model. Tell them to take turns, one partner searching for the bricks while the other builds, switching roles after each step has been done.
• You can find support for building in the Tips section below.
• Direct them to the three experiments in the student material, and distribute the Student Worksheets (Teacher Support – Additional Resources).

Experiment 1: Downwind

• Ask the students to set their land yachts on the starting line, facing away from the fans.
• Tell them to turn on the fans and to let their land yachts blow downwind (straight away from the fans) and to make observations about their movement. To optimize the land yacht's movement, the sail angle can be adjusted by turning the small gear. The red bushings can also be moved to change the shape of the sail.
• Challenge your students to find the best sail angle and shape for making the land yacht travel the farthest distance.
• Have them record the best angle and shape on their Student Worksheets.

Experiment 2: Crosswind

• Ask the students to set their land yachts on the starting line at a right angle, 90 degrees perpendicular to the fan.
• Have them turn on the fans to see if their land yachts move to the side of the fan. (They'll have to adjust the angle of the sail again to optimize the land yacht's movement.)
• Challenge your students to find the best sail angle, and record it on their worksheets.

Experiment 3: Into the Wind

• Have the students turn their land yachts slightly off the starting line and toward the fan to see which sail angle can make the land yacht drive “upwind” toward the direction the wind is coming from. They can use the angle measurement tool from their sets to measure the upwind angle of the land yacht from the line. With the right adjustments, the students will be able to make their land yachts move upwind, but not directly into the wind.
• Gather your students together to review and discuss their experiments.
• Which angle was best for each experiment?
• What were the limits? (Too much wind at the wrong angle can make the land yacht tip over. That’s why sailboats “reef” their sails to reduce the surface area of the sail, so the boat doesn’t blow over and capsize) .
• Why can’t the land yacht go more than 45 degrees upwind (toward the fan)? (The sum of the force vectors acting on the vehicle pushes it downwind.)
• If time allows, explain the forces at work (force vectors) in detail.
• Allow time for the students to disassemble their models, sort the bricks back into the trays, and clean up their workstations.

( Ongoing Throughout the Lesson )

• Give feedback on each student's performance.
• Facilitate self-assessment.
• Use the assessment rubrics provided to simplify the process.

Observation Checklist

• Measure your students’ proficiency in describing how different forces can change an object's motion.
• Needs additional support
• Can work independently
• Can teach others

Self-Assessment

• Green: With some help, I can describe how an invisible force can change an object's motion.
• Blue: I know I can describe how an invisible force can change an object's motion.
• Purple: I can describe and explain how an invisible force can change an object's motion.

Peer-Feedback

• Using the brick scale above to score each other's performance
• Presenting their ideas and giving constructive feedback

• Have the groups start testing as soon as they finish building. They should take turns as they make sail adjustments to ensure that everyone has a chance to try out the models.
• Choose ONE fan speed setting for all of the tests. Any speed will do.
• If your fan is too big or too powerful, try moving it farther back from the starting line. You could also use a piece of furniture to block some of the fan's airflow.
• If your fan is too small, move it closer to the models or try moving the fan by hand, following the models.

Differentiation

Simplify this lesson by:

• Having your students set the sail at 90 degrees for each of the tests

Increase the difficulty by:

• Encouraging the students to adjust the shape of the triangular sail
• Challenging your students to figure out how to make the land yacht move upwind

(Note: This will require additional time.) To incorporate math skills development, have the students let their land yachts go at a 60-degree angle from the starting line, and measure how far they travel by counting how many revolutions the rear wheels made before they stopped. They can use the angle and distance traveled to calculate the area of the triangle that was created.

Rear wheel diameter = 43.2 mm Circumference of the wheel = (π x D = C)

• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.G.A.1

Teacher Support

Students will:

• Understand how wind force acting from a distance can change an object’s motion
• Explore the relationship between energy and forces
• LEGO ® Education BricQ Motion Prime Set (one for every two students)
• Masking tape
• Medium-sized tabletop electric fans (ideally, 1 for every 10 students)
• NGSS MS-PS2-2
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.4

Lesson extension

Student Material

Student worksheet.

Download to view and share the student worksheet.

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LEGO Education Land Yacht

Hi everyone, it’s been a bit since I’ve shared what our boys LEGO Education co-op is doing, so I thought I’d give you all an update.

This week’s assignment was to create a “land yacht” using the gear skills they’ve learned mixed with some of the wind mill creations they’ve made recently to create a wind powered vehicle that can cross on land.

With this assignment the boys created a few variations of propellers and then discussed which worked out the best and why.

there were a couple of boys missing so Strawberry Shortcake and Tinker Bell were able to fill in for them. They had a great time and enjoyed participating.

Here is a close up of Strawberry Shortcake’s machine…she had a sail type wind powered car.

tinker Bell was the “wind source” for the group that day. Each one got to run their machine using a hair dryer to create some wind. They all discussed which ones went farthest, fastest, and smoothest and why.

I’ll share more of their group as we go. So far they’ve had a great time participating in this group and as a mama, I absolutely love the critical thinking skills and concepts taught in the LEGO Education products! I couldn’t recommend these more!

Want more information on LEGO Education ? Click any of the links below! They have products for all different grade and skill levels!

• LEGO Education Facebook
• LEGO Education Twitter
• LEGO Education on Pinterest
• LEGO Education on Instagram
• LEGO Education YouTube Channel
• LEGO Education Blog

We’re using the Simple and Motorized Mechanisms Base Set with our boys LEGO co-op group. You can use the kit alone, or purchase the Simple & Motorized Mechanisms Activity Pack separately which has all of the lesson plans written out for you. It’s literally a whole curriculum if you’d like to make this program into a more formal unit which we will do for next year. Here is how LEGO Education describes this kit:

“Using the activity pack, students will investigate the principles of simple machines, mechanisms, and structures; experiment with balanced and unbalanced forces and friction; measure distance, time, speed, and weight; and much more. The activity pack comes in a three-ring binder and provides 30 lessons featuring 37 principle model activities; 14 main activities, each with extension activities; and six problem-solving activities. Also included is a CD-ROM with teacher’s notes, student worksheets, and glossary.”

Disclosure: I received this product free for review on my website. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and were not influenced by the free product provided. We absolutely LOVE LEGO Education and can’t say enough about how cool this program is!

Hi Erica, What age did you start the Lego education? I have an upcoming first grader who I think would love it, but not sure if he is too young. Thanks!

First grade would be fine! As long as their pretty good at following LEGO instructions they’ll do great.

I am wondering about the Lego education co-op that your kids are a part of. You mentioned the set that you use The simple and motorized mechanisms base set and I am wondering if that is what each child needed or if the the whole group used the one set?

Hi Rebecca, the sets are meant to be used with a pair of students so 2 students to 1 set. You obviously only need 1 teacher’s manual/activity pack. But the box of actual LEGO pieces come with two books for each activity. Each student builds their half of the project, then they bring their individual projects together to create the final project.

I really enjoy your blog:) How did you find a lego co-op?

I would love to know more about this co-op. How did you start it or find it? How does it work? Does your family do any other co-ops? I think we actually go to the same church and I am homeschooling my son this year. I would love some resources on co-ops in the area to supplement our learning and work on our social skills.

Hi Sarah, I have a friend who started the group and I supplied the LEGO materials because they sent it to me for review for our group. But you can start up your own. We just meet once a month with about 6 boys. We’ve met for a few years and before using the LEGO Education materials we just did a theme. So everyone brought a creation to go with our theme for the month. They also bring a loose bag of LEGOs with them. Then after presenting their themed item, we have a 5 minute challenge where we give them something specific and they have 5 min. to create it, then they present that.

We do a weekly co-op as well.

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