Tinker Crate is a subscription box that inspires kids to learn about science, engineering, and technology, all while having lots of fun. Each month, the box explores a field of study within a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) discipline. Kids practice their problem-solving skills and learn how to engage in both structured and open-ended exploration and investigation. Most boxes walk the tinkerers through the construction of fairly complex mechanical devices.
This month, we got the FLYING DISC MACHINE.
Everything arrives together in a single Tinker Crate – the supplies, a fold-out instruction sheet, and the Tinker Zine.
The main project is always a great hands-on activity and a great demonstration of the scientific principles featured in the box, but the Tinker Zine is full of well-written, historically and scientifically accurate background and explanatory materials. This where the lessons really take shape!
This month’s Tinker Zine discusses flying discs and the physics of how they fly!
Inside the Zine, you’ll get a bit of history on how the frisbee was made. It’s interesting that this popular toy has evolved into a sport and a summertime activity too!
They even discussed the angle of attack or how you will be able to make your frisbee fly high! It’s great that they added the meaning of certain words here which can add to my child’s knowledge as we do this project.
You’ll also get to know how spinning and sports go hand in hand. Footballs, frisbees, and tops are those that employ angular momentum.
Tinker Crate Blueprint + Materials
The instructions and other essential project information are printed on a faux blueprint fold-out sheet.
It has a lot of explanatory notes, highlights on highly important and technical areas.
Here are all the materials provided to build our own flying disc machine!
The sheet has an elaborate sequence of instructions to follow and be sure to check every detail before sticking the given adhesive!
It’s good that they added the troubleshooting section just in case it doesn’t work well on the first try. This teaches kids how to figure out a problem and fix it too.
You’ll find all the details on how to operate your flying disc machine at the top. Make sure that you play with this machine where there is no one who will get hurt or hit.
Tinker Crate Activities
These are the materials that you will need to get your machine up and running.
They included a battery pack to help propel the frisbee to the air.
Here, we started to set up the parts as indicated on the sheet.
Things are moving along now and the gears are installed as well. I can’t wait to see the rest!
The instructions are clear and it helps that they also come with appropriate illustrations to guide your child to complete the task.
Here’s how to use the battery included in this pack.
It also comes with do’s and don’ts in using the batteries.
We are almost done!
A good way to test if your launcher works is to turn on the battery and see if the gears are spinning.
We got 6 discs in total!
We are all set!
To use, just position the disc at one end of the machine. The rest of the gears will make it fly!
And it did! My son tried to catch the flying disc but it was too fast! My kids are having a lot of fun with this machine. You’ll also get to try out different launching styles, so you can observe the different flight paths that your flying discs take. It’s great that they allow kids to experiment!
Tinker Crate Extensions
We also learned about aerodynamics in this zine! It’s amazing!
There are even instructions to build a target practice site so your kids can learn how to aim and shoot the flying discs.
This month’s recommended book for further reading is Wildly Spectacular Sports Science.
Tinker Crate for this month was a little challenging to build for my kids, but they were able to follow all the instructions provided, with a little help here and there. I love how they were concentrating on building this machine and seeing their happy faces after they were able to compete it and they had a great time exploring with it, playing with it, and inventing games for it! We can’t wait to get the next one!
Have you tried Tinker Crate yet with your kids?