Mechanisms in DT: designing and making moving vehicles
During the Autumn term, Year 2 travelled back to the 17th Century, when studying the Connected Curriculum topic “The Great Fire of London.”
This unit sequenced History, Computing and Design and Technology lessons, to build the children’s understanding of how fire engines have developed since 1666 – they quickly learnt that there were many improvements from 17th Century designs of fire engines, to their modern-day versions.
Year 2 were very excited to use the “2Design and Make” software on Purple Mash, and they used Computer Aided Design (CAD) programmes to design their own fire engines. CAD helped Year 2 to work in 3D, by making both an illustration and a net of their fire engine design, enabling them to add features to their including lights, sirens, ladders and hoses.
Within their Design and Technology lessons, Year 2 created axels by measuring doweling which they then cut using a hacksaw. Once the axels were made, a cardboard chassis was added, then wheels and a body. The children also learnt how to join the materials using split pins, glue, Sellotape and treasury tags. Finally, they completed their fire engines by adding other parts such as moving hoses and ladders, lights, sirens, doors, windows, fire fighters and number plates, and evaluated them.
