What You'll Need:

Pictures of all kinds of tools and devices / machines--everything from flashy cars to farm equipment to a baby's stroller to a hair dryer.

What to Do:

1. Display the pictures of tools and devices / machines. Talk about the different functions devices / machines perform. Have participants brainstorm types of devices / machines and their functions--e.g., machines that help around the house, devices / machines used in manufacturing, transportation devices / machines, entertainment devices / machines, communication devices / machines, science devices / machines, health devices / machines, etc.
2. Ask, "What machines do you use? What machines would you like to know how to use?" Help students talk about the circumstances under which they might learn how to operate the machines they name. Encourage them to imagine what it would be like, what would be involved, who would teach them, how long it would take, how they would use the machine. Also encourage them to talk about barriers to their learning to use such machines. Ask, "Do you think you might someday be able to learn how to operate that machine?. "If not, why not?"
3. Discuss and/or have participants sketch (in their Design Notebooks) sequence in relation to using a machine (e.g., set up or assemble the machine, turn it on, guide it, etc.).
4. Additionally you might want to encourage participants to think about machines, technology, and design -- ask:
   • How are machines designed?
   • Who designs them?
   • What do you think a designer or inventor of a new machine does first?
   • What do you think leads to the invention of a new machine or technology?
   • How do you feel about machines and technology?
   • What are some examples of some machines or technology you use?
     
   List responses to this question on chart paper. Invite participants to add to it as they think of other examples.

Glorious Gadgets

What's the Point?

• To help participants become aware of how tools and gadgets fill a need.
• To encourage participants to examine the mechanisms by which small tools and gadgets operate.

What You'll Need:

• At least three kinds of can openers (one-piece type with a bottle opener on one end and a can opener on the other, hand-operated crank type, electric), or "mixers" (wire whisk, hand-crank egg beater, electric mixer), or any such household items or items that can be found in school
• Any other gadgets you can bring in--kitchen gadgets, office gadgets, and also gadgets associated with home and auto repair such as a retractable tape measure, different types of screwdrivers, a tire-pressure gauge, an adjustable wrench, etc.

What to Do:

1. Pass around the can openers or mixers and ask, "What are these things?. Talk about the fact that these represent different solutions to the same problem. "What need do these objects fill?" "What is the function of these things?. "How does each one accomplish that function?" "How are they alike and how are they different?" Give participants plenty of time to try out the gadgets so they can see the differences and similarities among them.
2. Give participants time to look through the other gadgets you've brought in. Talk about their designs, their functions, and how they work. Encourage participants to look closely at how the parts (if any) of the gadget work together. Talk about the sequence of motions involved when each gadget is used: "What do you do first? What happens then? What effect does that have?.

Wacky World

• Kids' Puzzles,play with examples they find and develop X-pressions of their own.
  

• Artifactsand develop X-pressions of their own based on what they find there.
  

• Wacky Puzzles, play with Puzzle 3: What Part?and develop a similar X-pression of their own.
  

Tips & Tricks to get help looking "under the hood" of KAHooTZ technical options.

Review the Imagination Place! features that participants have learned to use so far.

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KAHooTZ Help / KAHooTZ Tech Tips

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During this workshop session, participants will have an opportunity to create an Imagination Place! Xpression of their own. It is important that they begin to understand the language of the on-line environment. The KAHooTZ on-line help has extensive information about the environment. Where you can find specific information is given below.

• About Xpressions -- Information about the basic building blocks of KAHooTZ.
  
• About Create -- Find out more about creating backgrounds, draw, stamps, sound and text -- elements that are used to create Xpressions.
  
• Xpressions: How do I -- Create -- Information on starting, testing and changing Xpressions.
  
• Saving my Xpression (in "How do I Create) Learn how to save Xpressions you have created.
  
• Publish an Icon Information about making an icon available to the KAHooTZ world.
  
• About Mail Find out basic information about mail in KAHooTZ.
  
• How Do I Mail? Learn what you need to know to use mail in KAHooTZ.
  

Note: Be sure that each participant has an icon that has been published to KAHooTZ.

Show participants how to make an animation. Encourage them to use it to demonstrate sequence and cause and effect.

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Design Notebooks

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• Have participants make a list and/or sketches of machines they want to know how to use.
• Ask participants to choose any gadget they're familiar with and make a series of simple drawings to show the sequence of what happens when the gadget is used. Each step should be labeled and/or briefly described in words.
• Use a sequence based on participants' sketches how a machine works as described in Marvelous Macines. Talk about the "events" in the sequence (what happens first, second, third, etc.). Have participants look for examples of cause and effect (e.g., when I push the button the light comes on). Ask participants to think about what cause and effect has to do with how devices / machines and tools work.

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Just Between Us

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Naming

Resist the temptation to push students to give proper names for parts and functions in their designs. The most important concepts for them to grasp are those of the relationships among parts and wholes and the idea of sequence.

Extension

Ask participants to use building and other materials available in the workshop room to make models of different kinds of real machines. As students build, have them describe the parts of the machines that are visible in their models and speculate about how the parts are related to the machine's overall functioning.

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Resources

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• The Way Things Work
• Eyewitness Books: Invention
• Marbles, Rollerskates, and Doorknobs: Simple Machines That Are Really Wheels
• Bathtubs, Slides, and Roller Coaster Rails: Simple Machines That Are Really Inclined Planes
• Seesaws, Nutcracker* and Brooms: Simple Machines That Are Really Levers
• Mistakes That Worked