Starter Activity

Pneumatic means ‘containing or operated by air or gas under pressure’ (Oxford English Dictionary). Use this activity to explore familiar objects which use air to work.

The arrows rotate the pictures. Click on a picture to enlarge it.

Possible Questions What have all of the pictures got in common? How does each of the objects work? Can you think of other objects which work in the same way? Can you think of any different ways we could use pneumatics?

1. Using Syringes With Balloons

The following examples are demonstrations of how pneumatics can be used in model making. In this case we are making a monster with moving parts but when the principles of pneumatics are understood they can be applied to new situations limited only by imagination.

Click on the syringe to see what happens when it is pushed in or pulled out.

Use the arrows on the toolbar at the top of the page to see different examples of how syringes/bottles can be used with balloons.

Possible Questions What happens to the air when the syringe is pushed in (or bottle is squeezed)? And pulled out? What do you think would happen if you shut the egg box when the balloon was full of air? Do you think that the size of the syringe or balloon would make any difference? Could we swap the balloon for something else? What? In the first example the mechanism is opening a ‘mouth’ - how else could it be used? Could the pop-up action of the pop-up monster be used to work a lever or switch?

2. Using Syringes With Levers

The examples use pneumatics with levers and linkages.

Click on the arrows on the toolbar at the top of the page to move through the examples. Click the syringe to see what happens when it is pushed in or pulled out.

The examples are demonstrations of how pneumatics can be used with levers and linkages in model making. In this case we are making a monster with moving parts but when the principles of pneumatics and levers and linkages are understood they can be applied to new situations limited only by imagination. Many of our everyday tools use levers. Can you think of any? How do they work?

It is important to think about the materials being used for the levers and linkages. How strong do they need to be? Where do the linkages need to be positioned for correct operation? What is going to move and what is going to be fixed? Think about these questions as you move through the examples.

3 Design Activity

Use this area together with the annotation tools found along the top toolbar to create or explain your own ideas and designs.

Items appear on the main screen when selected by clicking from the choice of heads, eyes, mouths, bodies and materials. Once on the main screen they can be resized/ reshaped by clicking on the item and then clicking and dragging the ‘handles’ which appear. The shape can be rotated when the appears on corner handles or by selecting the little triangles on the middle handles.