Balancing Mobiles
A mobile at the art museum won't hang straight — and your students are the engineer-artists called in to figure out why. Through hands-on experiments with mini seesaws and model mobiles, they discover how gravity, weight, and position work together to create balance. The unit builds toward a final design challenge: students design, build, test, and refine their own themed mobile sculptures until every piece hangs just right.
What Students Learn
How gravity pulls on objects and causes unbalanced systems to tip
How both the weight of objects and where they are placed affect balance
What a pivot point is and how it works in seesaws and mobiles
What counterbalance means and how to use it to fix an unbalanced design
How scientists and engineers ask questions, gather evidence, and defend their thinking through all 8 Science and Engineering Practices.
What's Included
8 slide-based lessons with embedded graphics and media
Step-by-step teacher guide with facilitation notes
Student worksheet packet with pre/post assessment
All hands-on building materials
Maker skill video tutorials
Standards Alignment
NGSS Performance Expectations
Engineering Design: K-2-ETS1-1 · K-2-ETS1-2 · K-2-ETS1-3