Wheels and Axles

Our spring term topic focus in year 2 is wheels and axles. Year 2 have been set a challenge from the Geographer's Guild (seen in the Paddington film), to research and design a vehicle suitable for exploring.

The Geographer's guild were very specific with what they wanted, and set out the user and the purpose of the vehicle. Year 2 used this brief to create a design criteria. Year 2 agreed that the vehicle must meet three design points to be successful; it must be a large vehicle so that an explorer/ team can live in there for long periods of time with all their supplies, it must be camouflaged to protect the explorers from predators, it must be suitable for to be used on lots of different terrains/ landscapes. 

The children started the topic by exploring vehicles using Kinex. The children explored different wheels and ways of fitting wheels, whilst also considering how these wheels might fit to the chassis/ body of a vehicle. 

Before the children were able to design their explorer vehicles, they had to do some product research. The children explored existing products and the use of vehicles within these products. 

The children the look at some existing vehicles used for exploring and identified their features to inspire their designs. 

In preparation for designing their explorer vehicle and building their prototype model the children developed their knowledge of how vehicles worked and in particular how the wheels and axles work in vehicles. The children explored toy vehicles and learnt about; fixed and loose axles and different axle holders. 

The children were then able to design their explorer vehicles and give reasons for their choices. The children created a design for the finished explorer vehicle and also for their prototype models