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Design a one-of-a-kind rolling vehicle powered by a wind-up spring motor. Learners start with a basic build that teaches them how stored spring energy turns into motion, then deconstruct that build and reinvent it with foam wheels, straws, wedges, collars, and stoppers in any configuration they can imagine. This Spark is an open-ended design challenge — every vehicle should look different from the example, and learners can combine their inventions across the room to create giant rolling machines.
Scissors for modifying straw axles — trimming excess length, cutting off bent or mushy ends, and creating shorter axles for design experiments.
Design a one-of-a-kind rolling vehicle powered by a wind-up spring motor. Learners start with a basic build that teaches them how stored spring energy turns into motion, then deconstruct that build and reinvent it with foam wheels, straws, wedges, collars, and stoppers in any configuration they can imagine. This Spark is an open-ended design challenge — every vehicle should look different from the example, and learners can combine their inventions across the room to create giant rolling machines.
Wind-Up Vehicles is the most open-ended build in the Sparks catalog. Every learner receives a complete kit of reusable parts — two foam component sheets, a wind-up mechanism, six paper straws, and an instruction sheet — and a single challenge: engineer a unique rolling vehicle. Because the wind-up mechanism is a spring-powered motor, learners don't need batteries, wiring, or a power supply — they just wind it up and watch stored energy release as rotation.
The activity has two layers. First, learners follow a shared basic build to orient to the parts and the wind-up mechanism: insert the motor into the motor holder, attach two straw axles, add wheels, secure the back wheels with wedges and collars, and test-drive. The basic build is scaffolding — it's practice. Then the real challenge begins: learners deconstruct their vehicle, grab any combination of collars, stoppers, wedges, wheels, and straws, and invent something totally new. The Spark invites cross-kit collaboration — learners can lock their vehicles together into one giant rolling machine — and encourages risk-taking, because "it's totally okay to try something that doesn't work. That's how you learn and come up with cool new ideas."
Scissors for modifying straw axles — trimming excess length, cutting off bent or mushy ends, and creating shorter axles for design experiments.
Question: What do you notice about the different pieces in your kit? What do you think each part will do on your vehicle?
Question: How many different shapes do you see? What do you think each one is called?
Question: What's inside the wind-up mechanism that makes it work?
Question: Which way do you think the wheels will spin when you wind up the motor?
Question: Where on the axle should the wheel go so your vehicle rolls steady? What happens if it's too far out?
Question: How do you think the wedge and the collar work together to hold the straw in place?
Question: Why do you think the second axle needs stoppers instead of attaching directly to the motor?
Question: How far do you think your vehicle will roll on one wind?
Question: What is actually happening inside the wind-up motor when you tighten it?
Question: Now that you've built the basic vehicle, what would you change to make it uniquely yours?
RI.K-2.7 – Use illustrations and words in a text to describe key ideas: Example: Learners refer to the printed instruction sheet in their Wind-Up Vehicles kit to identify which piece is the motor holder and which are the wedges, collars, stoppers, and wheels — combining the labeled diagram with the physical foam pieces to understand the assembly before starting the build.
SL.K-2.1 – Participate in collaborative conversations: Example: Learners describe their troubleshooting process to a partner during Step 9, using vocabulary like "motor," "axle," and "wedge" to explain why their vehicle rolls backwards or won't roll at all — then listen to their partner's fix and try it on their own build.
RI.3-5.3 – Explain relationships between concepts in a text: Example: Learners explain the cause-and-effect relationship between tightening the wind-up spring and the vehicle rolling forward, tracing how stored potential energy in a wound spring releases as rotation that spins the straw axles and drives the foam wheels across the floor.
W.3-5.2 – Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic: Example: Learners write a short build log describing how they modified their vehicle for the wheel-diameter experiment — noting which wheels they tested, how far the vehicle rolled each time, and what they concluded about the relationship between wheel size and travel distance.
RST.6-8.3 – Follow a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments: Example: Learners follow the 10-step Wind-Up Vehicles build sequence precisely, understanding that the order matters — the straws must be seated in the wedge pinchers before the collar slides forward to lock them, and the scraps from Step 5 must be saved because they become the second axle in Step 7.
SL.6-8.1 – Engage in collaborative discussions with diverse partners: Example: Learners negotiate the rules of the cross-kit combination challenge — debating whether vehicles should lock rigidly or flex at the joints, whose motor drives first, and what it means for the giant rolling machine to "work" — building scientific argumentation skills as they test their collaborative build.
2.MD.A.1 – Measure the length of an object: Example: Learners measure how far their Wind-Up Vehicle travels on a single wind using a ruler or tape along the floor, comparing their result to a classmate's and identifying which build traveled farther — connecting physical length measurement to the spring's energy output.
K.G.A.1 – Describe objects using names of shapes and relative positions: Example: Learners identify the wheel as a circle and the wedge as an L-shape and describe spatial relationships during assembly — "the collar slides in front of the wedge," "the straw goes through the hole," "the stopper sits outside the wheel" — using positional language throughout the build.
3.MD.B.4 – Generate measurement data by measuring lengths: Example: Learners test their vehicle with all three wheel-pair diameters and measure travel distance for each, generating a small data set and displaying it on a line plot — comparing how small, medium, and large wheels translate the same amount of spring energy into different amounts of rolling distance.
4.MD.A.2 – Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances: Example: Learners calculate the difference in travel distance between their vehicle's small-wheel and large-wheel tests, using subtraction to quantify the improvement and multiplication to predict how far the vehicle would travel over multiple winds at the best-performing wheel size.
6.RP.A.3 – Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world problems: Example: Learners calculate travel distance per wind by dividing the total distance their vehicle rolled by the number of clicks they wound into the spring — comparing rates between their own runs at different wheel sizes and building an intuition for how stored energy converts to motion.
7.SP.B.4 – Use measures of center to draw informal comparative inferences about two populations: Example: Learners compare the average travel distance of small-wheel vs. large-wheel configurations across multiple trials, calculating the mean for each group and using those measures to argue which wheel choice is better for distance vs. speed — using real experimental data from their own builds.
K-PS2-1 – Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions: Example: Learners observe how winding the motor creates a push that rolls the vehicle forward, investigating how the strength of the wind (more clicks vs. fewer clicks) changes the distance the vehicle travels and the speed at which it moves — a direct observation of force-and-motion cause and effect.
K-2-ETS1-2 – Engineering Design: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model: Example: Learners iterate through multiple vehicle configurations in Step 10, physically modeling each change — swapping wheels, adjusting the wedge position, trimming axle length — and testing whether each modification improves how the vehicle rolls, learning that engineering is a cycle of build-test-change.
3-PS2-1 – Forces and Interactions: Example: Learners investigate how the force released by a tightened spring causes the Wind-Up Vehicle to roll, testing different wind counts and different wheel sizes to observe how the same stored energy produces different motion outcomes depending on the vehicle's design — establishing a clear cause-and-effect relationship between force input and motion output.
3-5-ETS1-3 – Plan and carry out fair tests to identify failure points: Example: Learners systematically troubleshoot a vehicle that won't roll by isolating variables one at a time — checking whether collars are dragging on the ground, whether the straw is seated in the wedge, whether the axle is too long — identifying each failure point, fixing one thing, and re-testing before changing anything else.
MS-PS3-5 – Energy Transfer: Construct an explanation of energy transfer: Example: Learners trace the energy path through their Wind-Up Vehicle: hand-applied mechanical energy converts into elastic potential energy as the spring winds tight; elastic potential energy converts back into rotational kinetic energy when the spring releases; rotational kinetic energy transfers through the axles into the wheels as translational motion, until friction with the floor dissipates it as heat.
MS-ETS1-3 – Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among competing solutions: Example: Learners compare their basic build against their iterated design (or against a classmate's radically different configuration), measuring travel distance, stability, and speed for each and using the quantitative results to decide which design choices matter most when the goal is "farthest per wind" versus "fastest over a fixed distance."
First, check whether the collars on the wedges are dragging on the ground — if they are, the front of the vehicle is sitting too low and the wheels can't turn freely. Adjust the wedge position so the body lifts off the surface. Second, check that the straw is firmly seated inside the wedge pinchers — if the collar slid on before the straw was in place, the joint won't grip. Third, make sure you actually wound the motor far enough to hear the clicks — under-winding is a common overlook.
The wind-up motor is oriented the opposite way — a common quirk, not a failure. Gently lift the wind-up mechanism out of the motor holder, flip it around 180 degrees, and re-seat it. Same build, reversed direction.
Paper straws are fragile. Cut off the mushy end with scissors and try again on a clean section. Hold the straw at the base — the part closest to the motor peg — and push straight on, don't twist at an angle. You have six straws in the kit, so there's plenty of room to re-cut and retry.
The wheels are too far out on the straws. Slide them inward toward the motor — the closer the wheel sits to the base, the more stable the axle. If the straw is much longer than it needs to be, trim the excess with scissors.
That's the spring telling you it's fully tight. Stop winding the instant you feel the resistance — winding past it can damage the mechanism. Release and let the vehicle roll. You don't need a full wind every time; even a half-wind is enough to move the vehicle.