Kinetic Toys - Butterfly

Including kinetic toy creation in my STEAM curriculum is my number one goal this upcoming school year.

Last school year, I showed a a Pinterest reel to the students. The reel shows a cardstock butterfly connected by 3 wires in different configurations attached to a clothespin. The clothespin type is the one where two pieces of wood are hinged with a metal brace.

The contraption’s movement is initiated by a tiny handle that winds to make the butterfly’s wings flap. The gaps in the clothespin allow the wires to be secured and wrapped in a tiny roll of paper to easily rotate when the handle winds.

The elementary and middle school students and I tried to reverse-engineer what we observed in the reel. We watched the reel numerous times and wrote down the seconds each time a new step in the process was shown. Some of the steps either weren’t shown or easily understood. What seemed so simple became quite complicated-fast!

It was easy for most of the students to estimate the size of the butterfly and to decorate it on both sides. We began using large paper clips to bend in the configurations shown. We used needle-nose pliers to bend and clip the wires. Initially, the students were enthusiastic and motivated by using a “real” tool. When it came time to make more intricate curves, students became discouraged because the paper clips were too rigid to manipulate.

The next steps crashed to a halt. The most motivated students became discouraged immediately. Time was running out. The large paper clip was not long enough to create the necessary wires to put the winged butterfly in motion.