Ramps, Ramps, Ramps Overdue

This kit provides everything you need to introduce youth to design and systems thinking. Play with ramp systems helps children experience and learn how structure and construction styles affect elevation, speed, distance, and motion. All the loose parts can be combined in endless ways, providing opportunity for exploration and investigation.Help children document and catalog their discoveries, including notes on their goals, what worked, what didn’t, and changes made to each iteration or design. This information can be used to chart, graph, and analyze the data collected during their process.

Recommended Ages: 4+

*This kit is a nice complement to our Coaster Wall exhibit.

In this kit:

Discovery Ramps Single Set, 30 Mini Sandbags, Baby Swiss Cheese Towers, Extra Set of 10 2" Wood Balls, 12' Rubber ramp, Teaching Guide

Open-Ended Questions Adults Can Ask Children: What do you want to have happen? What are some ways you think it might work? What are some of the materials you will need? What properties do the materials have? How you will know when it works? When x happened, y happened, why is that? What have you discovered?

Suggested Books to Support Systems Thinking: Because a Little Bug Went Kachoo by Rosetta Stone; Going Places by Paul H. Reynolds Ruby Goldberg’s Bright Idea by Anna Humphrey; What Is A Pulley by Lloyd G. Douglas; Henry Ford: Big Wheel in the Auto Industry by Mike Venezia; Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty What Do You Do With An Idea by Kobi Yamada