lego yacht tutorial

• Pre-K & Kindergarten
• Teacher Resources
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Explore sail shape, area and angle to the wind needed for a wind powered vehicle to effectively capture wind energy.

( 5-10 Minutes )

It is a windy weekend at the beach and Jack and Jill are out to have a bit of fun. They have this old cart they normally use, but today it’s Jill’s turn to push Jack and Zog the Dog, and the weather is really windy, which makes it very hard work for her.

Jill gives up in the end and Jack can understand why. Zog the Dog does his best to help out and suddenly he sees an old towel half buried in the sand. Jill spots it at exactly the same time and they discuss between them how using the towel, the wind power, and a few other things, it may be possible to make a kind of land yacht that will safely take them all for a fun ride.

How can you make a safe cart that is powered by the wind ... and carries at least one person? Let’s find out!

( 20-25 Minutes )

Make Your Test Track Stick a 4-meter (≈ 4 yards) strip of masking tape across a stretch of floor and mark it off every 10 cm (≈ 4 in) from the fan. Now we are ready to build models!

Warning! This may be dangerous!

Warning! Fans are potentially dangerous. Make sure that students handle them with great care!

Build the Land Yacht (all of Book 9A and book 9B to page 5, step 12) Build it with the small sail first.

Contemplate

( 20-25 minutes ).

What difference does sail size make? Predict and test: what difference could there be between the 40 cm2 (≈ 15 in2) (small), 80 cm2 (≈ 31.5 in2) (medium), and 160 cm2 (≈ 63 in2) (large) sails on the yacht. How far will each roll ... and (optional) how fast?

Test at least three times with each sail attached to obtain a scientifically valid answer.

In our tests, the small sail rolled about 1.5 m, the medium about 2 m and the large about 2.5 m. Double the area gathers more wind energy but does not double the distance. Why? The further from the fan, the weaker the wind! Larger sails moved faster at first. But all the sail sizes stopped rolling after about 10 seconds. None of them sail faster than the wind!

Tip Choose ONE speed setting to do all the tests. Any speed will do. We used high speed.

Note Your ‘serious’ scientists might also suggest testing the land yacht with just the bare mast, i.e. with no sail at all, so you might wish to try that as well.

What if the wind is blowing from an angle? Launch your land yacht at different angles across the wind stream. Can you explain what happens?

At most angles except D the yacht still moves forward! One part of the wind’s force is deflected off the sail, propelling it forward.

The other part of the force tries to blow it sideways. In fact a land yacht sailing across the wind at angles B and C can go very fast – but could also flip over.

Did you know? The LEGO figure weighs 3 g (≈ 0.1 oz). The yacht weighs about 55 g (≈ 1.94 oz). The weight brick is 53 g (≈ 1.9 oz). Predict and test how the yacht would perform with a weight brick load.

Does sail shape matter? Try making card or paper sails with the same area but a different shape. Find out about Square Riggers, Kon-Tiki, Chinese Junks, and Arab Dhows from books or by searching the internet.

( 25-30 Minutes )

The Wind Sucker Rebuild the model to page 24, step 15. Hold the model 2 m (≈ 2 yds) away facing the fan (set on high speed). Predict what will happen when you let go. Then try it! Can you explain?

It builds up speed running towards the fan. The wheels may skid when it is close to the fan. The energy from the wind is collected by the sails, geared down (3:1), which increases the force and turns the wheels, but in the opposite direction. When it skids – the wind force one way is equal to the friction force of the tires pushing the other way

Idea Predict and test what happens if you face it away from the fan.

Making it more efficient? Add a weight brick and see what happens. Swap the thin wheels for big wheels.

If it is skidding, adding weight increases friction by pressing the tires harder onto the floor. Large wheels also have more area in contact with the floor, i.e. friction and grip increase and it moves forward. It will also move faster (larger wheels).

Teacher Support

Students will explore the concepts of: Scientific investigation Air resistance Area Mechanisms – Gears Force Friction Formal and informal measuring of time and distance

9686 Simple & Powered Machines Set (two students per set recommended) 4-meter (≈ 4 yards) strip of smooth floor Masking tape Meter stick (yard stick) or measuring tape Timer or stopwatch 3-speed desk fan Optional: card, scissors, pencils, and rulers to make your own sails

NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas: Physical Science MS-PS2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Crosscutting Concepts Energy and matter

Science and Engineering Practices Developing and using models Planning and carrying out investigations Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Common Core Mathematics Standards 7.RP.A / 6.NS.B / 6.EE.C / 7.EE.B / 8.EE.B / 8.F.B / 6.SP.A

Common Core English Language Arts SL 6.1 / 6.2 / 7.1 / 7.4 / 8.1 RST 6-8.3 / 6-8.4 / 6-8.7 WHST 6-8.1 / 6-8.7 / 6-8.8 / 6-8.9

Student Material

Student worksheet.

Download to view and share the student worksheet.

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Lego Super Yacht MOC - Completed (part 4)

• 4 years ago

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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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