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  • Our STEM projects are designed so that participants get it wrong before they get it right. You will observe your students struggling as they attempt to create their own STEM projects. This process is an empowering experience, building perseverance, frustration tolerance and growing overall confidence! With your support, students will step out of their comfort zones to think, build and problem-solve for themselves.
  • Productive Struggle Opportunities:
    - Cutting the popsicle sticks in half.
    - Attaching rubber band to straw and popsicle stick.
    - Taping the wings to the popsicle stick.

In this Rosie Labs guide you will find:

  • Productive struggle opportunities for students during their project build,
  • Lesson objectives and concept overview,
  • Step-by-step instructions, visual build guide, and video of the Rosie Riveters’ Kinetic Butterflies project,
  • Class Lesson Slides (optional)
  • Student Build Guide
  • Optional STEM activities to further explore the objectives and concepts used in the project build.

Objective

Students are introduced to the concept of energy and use materials to build a butterfly that is propelled by a rubber band. 

Concept Overview and Experiment Inspiration

Energy is the ability to do work. Energy comes from all sorts of sources, such as the sun, wind, petroleum, and the muscles inside our bodies.

One way scientists talk about energy is with the terms kinetic and potential. Objects have kinetic energy if they are moving. Objects that are not moving or working but could move or work if released have potential energy.

Potential energy is all around us, but it can be a bit harder to spot. An object can store energy as the result of its position. One easy way for students to spot potential energy is when an object is in a high position and has the capacity to move (ie, fall to the ground). An apple sitting at the edge of a high shelf has potential energy to fall to the ground. A dam that is holding back water has the potential energy to flow, or move, when the dam is released. If an object is sitting on the ground, like a soccer ball, it still has potential energy because someone could come kick the ball. When an object has the ability to change it’s ability to work, or it’s movement, it has potential energy.

Potential energy can also exist in the material of an object. Elastic material, like a bow and arrow, or a diving board, store potential energy. The pulling, elastic property of these materials, when released, change into kinetic energy. The rubber band for our butterfly project is a great example. The potential energy stored by twisting the rubber band in your kinetic butterfly helps to build the potential energy, storing your butterfly in the book helps to store that potential energy until you’re ready to release it and convert the potential energy into kinetic energy. The same experiment would not work with, for example, a piece of yarn instead of a rubber band.

Science Goals

  • Energy is the ability to do work. Energy makes matter move and can take on different forms.
  • Potential energy is the stored amount of energy in something that has the capacity to transform into kinetic energy, or moving energy.
  • Potential energy is all around us in our everyday lives. The state or position the object is in, such as water being held by a damn, or the material of the object, like a rubber band, are examples of potential energy in our everyday lives.

Vocabulary

  • energy – the ability or power to make matter move or do work.
  • kinetic energy – moving energy
  • potential energy – the stored energy an object has because of its position or the state it is in.

Required Materials

  • popsicle stick
  • straw
  • small rubberband
  • paper
  • pen, pencil, or other writing tools
  • scissors
  • tape
  • markers

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1

Cut a popsicle stick into two 3/4 inch lengths.

 

Step 2

Fold a sheet of paper in half and using one of the popsicle sticks as a guide draw a butterfly wing at the crease of the paper.

 

Step 3

Cut the butterfly wings out of the folder paper and divide the wings into two halves. Set aside.

 

Step 4

Cut a 2cm length of straw.

Step 5

Thread a small rubber band around one of the popsicle stick lengths, through the straw and around the other popsicle stick lengths. Secure the rubber band with tape on each stick.

Step 6

Symmetrically decorate the butterfly wings in a design of your choosing.

Step 7

Tape one half of the wing to a popsicle stick length. Repeat on the other side.

Step 8

Gently wind the wings around the straw in opposite directions. Holding tight to the sticks, place the wound-up butterfly into a book.

Step 9

Open the book and watch your butterfly flutter!

Optional STEM Activities

Resource 1

Sling-Shot!

In pairs, provide each pair of students with a rubber band and ruler. Have the pairs find a safe space to fire a rubber band (at a wall with no other objects is a good idea!). To do this, have each student hook the rubber band onto the edge of the ruler, pull it back to a designated length, (i.e. 4 inches, 5 inches etc.) and release it straight ahead when you say to do so. Have them r mark the place where the rubber band lands. Record the data on a sheet of paper.

Repeat the process four more times. Were the results consistent? If not, have students use the average, or the most consistent location mark as their average.  Then stretch the rubber band an additional inch farther and repeat the experiment. 

What pattern do you observe? What can determine the relationship between the amount of stretch (potential energy) and the distance the rubber band traveled (kinetic energy)? 

 

Resource 2

Advanced Exploration of PE= mgh

For older students you can walk through this equation for potential energy. They do not need to know the equation well at this point but this gives them an idea of how scientists can calcluate energy and what each of the variables in the equation mean.

The equation for potential energy is PE = mgh where:

  • PE stands for potential energy (it is measured in a unit called joules)
  • m is the mass of the object (it is measured in kilograms)
  • g is the acceleration of gravity constant (this is a constant number that scientists have determined 9.8 m/s²)
  • h is the height above the ground or the distance that the object falls (this is measured in a unit called meters)
  • “mgh” means m multiplied by g then multiplied by h

Based on the information above does the deflated balloon possess potential energy?

The answer is no. The balloon is already on the ground and deflated, so gravity (or the acceleration of gravity) doesn’t have any potential to move it from where it is without something else happening like the wind or your foot.

What about if you pick the balloon up over your head? Based on the equation above does the balloon now holds potential energy?

The answer is yes! The balloon now possesses potential energy because if released it would fall to the ground and exert energy on another object. We can account for both the “m” and the “h” variables in the equation for Potential Energy!