Pneumatics and Hydraulics with K'Nex
Our Pneumatics and Hydraulics with K'Nex program provides our 3rd - 5th grade students the opportunity to discover STEM by exploring and engineering through the fascinating science of pneumatic (air) and hydraulics (water) using components of K’Nex. We are honored to have Tonet Johnson, a master science teacher at Milwaukee College Prep and is a Lego Robotics coach as the program lead for this class.
The program allows students to work as a team to build different pneumatic and hydraulic machines. Each build requires students to collaborate with one another and select and execute specific roles within the group, make and test their predictions, discuss adjustments to their machines, design and implement enhancements for better performance, and experience first hand the steps of the scientific method.
Some of the activities & machines built throughout this 2022 in this program included;
a castle that has four walls, two turrets, and a drawbridge
a pneumatic launcher that will send a rocket 2 feet into the air
a pneumatic submarine that can go up and down in the water as the air pressure increases and decreases
a pneumatic catapult that will launch a missile at least three feet
a car that is powered by air
a hydraulic dump truck that can lift and dump a load
a hydraulic digger that can lift various objectives
