Primary Science Project

I am building a Billy Cart (Australian term) for my daughter’s Pre-Primary class.  The  Billy Carts are a full school project to foster physics at different levels.   It is about wheels.  The pupils are supposed to build their cart (one per class) with supervision of parents.  One dad works at TAFE and had his students built one for Helen’s class.  It was massive and very heavy and the Principal told Helen that it could not be entered because her pupils had no input to either design or production.    Helen asked if I could help and I am building a simple cart which can be disassembled and her Pre-Primary kids can assemble it and add decorations as their part of the project.

Billy Carts used to be around when I was a kid.  There was a BC season and major downhill races were run.  Sophisticated carts had a brake which was usually a stick loosely nailed to the seat box which when pulled, dug into the road slowing the cart.

This is not my Billy Cart, but a similar design.

I suspect there are going to be some sophisticated designs from Dads and the Principal may be ruling some of them out.

I did see some of the physics part of Helen’s project with her class investigating wheels, rollers and inclined planes.