It was another great year of young sailors participating in the Reach Simple Machine Scavenger Hunt at TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE Atlantic Coast 2017 sponsored by Harken. Hundreds of kids came through festivals along the Atlantic Coast and had the opportunity to check out ships which have traveled around the world and talk with experienced ship staff who could answer and questions they have.
Thanks to Harken and their dynamite new simple machines display , kids got to check out several simple machines including four different purchase systems (pulleys), a winch (wheel and axle) with an attached winch handle (lever). The kids, and parents, all got to try it out and mastered the idea of mechanical advantage and how adding more simple machines make the job of raising a simple task.
We first stopped in Charleston, SC for the Tall Ships Charleston Festival where we had several hundred participants come through and gave out information from two local community sailing organizations-College of Charleston and Charleston Community Sailing, both of which successfully implement the Reach program curriculum. Kids checked out the Harken display, took some photos with our science props and successfully found all 6 simple machines!
A month later we hopped up to the Tall Ships Festival at Sail Boston to finish out the summer. The foggy weather didn’t deter our simple machine detectives. We even had some time travelers come back from the Revolutionary War and successfully complete the Simple Machine Scavenger Hunt and then play their drums with their fidget spinners-you can check out some footage here!
Overall it was a fantastic summer with the Tall Ships with all sorts of simple machines discovered and kids #doingscience!