You might have read my short Physics of Beyblades post. Well, guess what. There is more! I know what you might be thinking. “This is amazing news! My life is complete.” Am I right? Just kidding. This post could be about anything really. Omit the words “beyblades” and “physics,” and insert some words of your own. What this post is really about is how we can extend or expand an area of learning based on a child’s interest. But let me backup and tell you a little about how deep the beyblade love goes in our home.
My kids launch beyblades…all.the.time. In a plastic stadium. (Did you know that plastic amplifies sound?) Sometimes very early in the morning. Even on weekends. Want to know what that sounds like? Well, early in the morning it sounds like little fighter jets colliding in your living room. So I’m just going to go right ahead and admit that there are times I want to hide every last one of them. And crush the stadiums. But in my calmer moments, I realize just how many concepts the kids are exploring simply by playing with beyblades.
So at this point, if you’re not sure what a beyblade is, it looks like this:
The beyblades are at the bottom. Above them are different kinds of launchers needed to start the bey (short for beyblade) spinning. The plastic structure on top is an example of a stadium.
When I first noticed that this fascination for beyblades wasn’t going away, I began to ask some questions. I got curious. I wanted to know what the kids had already noticed and observed. So I started a conversation and just typed out the things they were saying. They had some observations about the way the beys moved, how they were built, and what made them function. They said things like:
“Beyblades can have sharp edges on the top plastic layer. Like a windmill. That might mean they’re affected by the wind.”
“When it goes around many times, it loses its stamina.”
“You need a rip chord to make a bey spin.”
“Balance types have more balance than other types of beys. It stays in the middle very long so it gets more power. In the bottom, there’s a little ball. That’s how you know it’s a balance type. Some balls are tucked in and some are out more.”
“The way you rip affects the way it spins. The way it spins affects the way it attacks. The way it attacks affects the speed.”
“If you tilt a rip chord forward it will make the bey go a different way than if you point it straight down. The angle that you tip the rip chord matters to how the bey spins.”
“Metal beys have a disadvantage because they are heavier which makes them wobble more. Plastic ones are weak, but that makes them not wobble.”
We kept doing this kind of conversation with me jotting down the things they were saying, for days. Then at some point, I explained to them how they were actually noticing some different physics concepts at work. They were intrigued, especially after relating to them what physics even was. To prove that I wasn’t making it all up, I told them about some different physics laws. Together, we tried to connect them to what the kids had been observing.
We did this through conversation, but also largely by exploring one concept at a time and repeatedly manipulating the law through the launching of different beys, at different speeds, with differing amounts of force. Now, take a deep breath because I’m actually about to get all science-y on you. But I’m just trying to give you some concrete examples of the things we did. Feel free to stop here, and just know that when a child’s interest is high, they are open to learning new ideas that are related to that interest! For all of you Type – A personalities who need to continue to the end, or for those just really interested in the topic, read on!
So, Newton’s second law says that, “the greater the force, the greater the acceleration (changes in motion) and the greater the mass, the greater the force needed to move the object.” So what did we do? We explored changing the force by how we ripped the beys (Remember that beyblades are launched using a rip chord that sends them whirling into the stadium).
We changed the mass by using beys of different materials. I explained how mass had to do with how much matter something has and weight had to do with how much force is pushing on an object because of gravity. They were convinced that the metal beys had more mass than the plastic ones. So, we first pulled out a scale to weigh them while I used a calculator I found online to convert weight to mass. They told me the weight, I told them the mass. We kept a record of all that was happening. Sure enough, the beys with greater mass needed more force. The changes in motion (acceleration) they noticed were in the bey’s speed and in how many times it changed direction.
On another day, we also explored rotational, or circular motion. Using a hula hoop and a ball, the kids were able to see how when the ball was released from circling along the hula hoop’s path, it continued moving in a straight line that was at a tangent to the circle. So it was almost like seeing this principle in reverse with the beyblade. When a tangential force was applied, like the beyblade’s rip chord, we could see linear motion being translated into rotational motion by having something force a rotational path. In this case, that was the launcher holding the beyblade at the center. (If you just hold the launcher face up and pull the rip cord, you can see exactly what happens to the beyblade.)
I only kept going with all of this if interest stayed high. This is not something we explored in one day. In the end, the kids were pleased to learn that their play was actually connected to ideas they felt that “older people” studied. Stopping to help them see those connections was another point of validation when it came to how I see their work. I value play and all the ways that children of different ages engage in it, and I wanted them to know it. Being able to explore a concept is more important than being able to name it. We had a lot of fun just playing and investigating these things together. I certainly learned more as well!
I’d love to know if your kids like beyblades too, or if there are things they really love that you’ve been able to use to teach something related!
