Energy systems
Invent-a-Wheel
9. Car Facts
Overview
Students make detailed drawings of their cars, showing and labeling each part.
Procedure
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Initial question: If we re-designed our cars and then changed our mind and wanted our original car back, what could we do to help us remember? Students will probably come up with their idea of making a drawing.
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Why make a drawing? Discuss drawings as a way to help us remember what we made and how we made it. Provide the worksheet “Drawing My Car” and have students draw their cars.
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Gallery walk: Post all the students’ diagrams of their cars, and allow students time to examine each of them. Raise these questions:
- How are these diagrams different from one another? Have students share what they liked about another student’s drawing (what made it a good drawing?). Introduce the issue of labeling. If one diagram has labels, but another doesn’t, show both to the class and ask (if not, expand on the first question):
- Can you tell from this diagram what each part is?
- What does this diagram have that makes it easier to understand?
- Ask about viewpoint:
- Where would I have to be to see the car look like this? If the car is drawn from a birds-eye view, students should recognize that you would have to be above it. Then change your point of view, looking at it from the side or front.
- Suppose I was looking at it from over here. What would I see?
- How could you make a new diagram to make it look like it does now?
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Class chart: Using the student’s ideas or ideas from the attached sample diagrams, draw a large class diagram.
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Redesigning diagrams: On a new worksheet, “How My Car Looks from Different Views,” encourage students to add labels to their diagrams and to draw them from a specific point of view. If time permits, they could add new diagrams from additional points of view or draw the car in an exploded view using the worksheet “My Car in Exploded View.”
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Outcomes
- Students use diagrams to represent their own constructions.
- Students compare their diagrams, and add labels to their diagrams.
- Students compare how things look from different viewpoints, and represent different views of the same object.
