Kids create gadgets at Gizmo

STEM learning took a turn toward transportation Monday at Gizmo Coeur d'Alene. During a packed Tinker Time class, 20 kids endeavored to build a pneumatic car.

“We’re creating a community here today,” said Kacen Cook, a teacher’s assistant leading the class.

Tinker Time is a free, after-school program that takes place Mondays at the Gizmo makerspace on the North Idaho College campus in Coeur d'Alene. It's an independent program with no affiliation to the college.

Classes often fill quickly when registration opens at 6 p.m. the Monday before the class.

In Tinker Time, up to 20 students, ages 8-13, are given a STEM-inspired project challenge, with two hours to complete.

They can work with any supplies found in one of three bins to create things like dream catchers or paper lanterns.

This week's challenge was to build a balloon-powered car that could move across the room.

“Will a heavier car go farther or will a lighter car go farther?” asked Alayna Utt, innovative educator for Gizmo.

She forms lessons to introduce kids to scientific concepts. The air-powered car, for example, is geared to teach one of Newton's laws.

“Everybody who thinks the heavier car will go farther come to this side of the room," Utt said. "And everyone who thinks the lighter car will go farther go to that side.”

About two thirds of the kids scrambled to the heavy side of the room.

“Look around you: these will be the people you’ll be working with tonight, so break into groups,” she continued. "Ready, build!"

Kids broke up into groups to work with people in their school of thought building a heavy or a light car that would go the farthest.

There were a few rules, and a few guidelines.

“It’s no fun if it’s step-by-step directions,” said student Preston Bright.

Cars had to have four wheels, and be powered by a balloon in order to travel across the whole room to a finish line.

To start, Utt recommended that students not glue their wheels to their axle, and the axle to the body of the car, making everything stuck in place.

“I like it when you can do it multiple ways,” said Preston’s brother Parker Bright.

The teacher did give a handful of hints through the evening to get kids moving in the right direction, and helped out as they need it. For the first hint, she taught kids a trick by putting a rubber band around a balloon and a straw. Students could blow up the balloon through the straw, and the pressure on the straw slowed the release of air from the balloon for steady power.

But kids figured out their own challenges for the most part, with occasional guidance.

“Wait, don’t you have to … I have to think,” said one student while he tried to figure out a plan for his chassis.

Everyone worked to answer some basic questions like: how would you attach the car to the wheels without getting the wheels stuck? If the wheels wobble on the axel, how would you get them to move smoothly? How would you get the car over the bumps in the floor?

Some students worked in small groups, or larger groups, and some worked by themselves.

“We are on completely different pages,” Preston said to Parker.

Parker put jumbo straws around a pencil, which he used as his wheel axle. The straw could be glued to the car and the wheels could be glued to the pencil, allowing the pencil and wheels to turn freely inside the straw.

Preston put two CDs on a piece of bamboo with rubber bands to hold them on. He added two more CDs to the axle to work around the rules, and complete his car.

Kids can be creative in lots of clever ways. Utt said four wheels, she didn’t say anything about two axles.