Dancing Acrobat – Folk Art Toy STEM Project

Imagine making a toy that can do acrobatic tricks with just a squeeze of your hand? Some of the earliest toys did exactly this. Today we are taking our students away from the screens, and back to the way kids used to play and learn with an easy and fun STEM project building a heritage toy known as a Folk Art Acrobat Toy. This is a fantastic project for the classroom, summer camp, STEM club or for homeschoolers. Kids learn about simple machines, levers, fulcrums, force, load and pivot. All perfect if you are building a lesson plan in engineering and physics and want to include a memorable, hands on learning experience for your students.

Acrobat Heritage Toy Project

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This project is excellent for upper elementary students, middle school or even high school students. It does require some attention to detail, fine motor skills and the use of a drill. As always, ensure adequate adult supervision is always provided to students.

What is Folk Art?

The history of folk art began in the Colonial Period in the 1750s in America. It is a special kind of art project made by ordinary people, who are not in any way professional artists. These skills were passed down through families or neighbors, generation through generation. They were a wonderful way to preserve traditions, stories and a way of life.

Folk Art can be paintings, carvings, pottery, quilts, or other handmade crafts and toys. It often has bright colors, simple shapes, and patterns that are special to a specific culture.

Why is Folk Art Important?

Folk art helps us learn about different cultures and their histories. It keeps traditions alive and reminds us of the stories and creativity of people from all over the world!

Simple Machines Toy

This amazing Folk Art Acrobat Toy brings the concept of a simple machine to life and can be used in the classroom to study simple machines. Folk Art Acrobat Toys often work using levers, pulleys, or a combination of both. This toy uses levers only. We will get into the specific science of this design in a moment. First, let’s build a toy and start playing and learning!

Build an Acrobat Toy Tutorial

Check out our video tutorial which walks you through how to make this toy with step by step instructions. We often find it easier to build these projects after watching someone else do it, and we love bringing these videos to our readers. If you can’t see the video below this paragraph, it is likely being blocked by your browser, adblocker or firewall. You can also hop over to the STEAM Powered Family YouTube Channel to watch it there.

Materials

Cutting mat or a surface safe for cutting on
Side cutters
Toothpicks
Fine cord or string
4 X Tongue depressors or Jumbo Craft Sticks
5X wood beads (they must fit onto the toothpicks)
Pencil
Wood glue
Exacto knife
Screwdriver or drill with 2 mm and 1.6 mm drill bit
Sandpaper
Needle threader or copper wire
Ruler
Square wooden dowel
2 X 3.2mm Wood screws
Awl

How to Build an Acrobat Toy

Ensure you do this step with the body, the two arms and two legs. When you are finished you will have 5 pieces to make your body.

Adult Supervision Required

You may need the help of an adult for the next few steps:

Use the Exacto knife to gently cut along the pencil lines. Do not push down hard and try to cut it out in one cut. You should make at least three cuts. Use your free hand to hold the tongue depressor down and prevent it from sliding around. Use sandpaper to smooth all the edges.

💡Teacher Tip! Don’t have much time? Cut the acrobat bodies and frame pieces ahead of time. Then have the students sand, paint and drill the holes. This will save significant time.

Now it’s time to break out the drill! Use the 1.6 mm drill bit to make all the holes on the body pieces.

Use the 2 mm drill bit to make the 2 holes on the wooden dowels, which are 10cm from the bottom and on either side of the short, 6cm piece of dowel.

Finally, use the 1.6mm drill bit to make all the other holes.

Sand all three pieces of wooden dowels well.

Paint all your pieces now or you can leave them plain wood.

Putting the Acrobat Together

You will need the wooden beads, glue, a side cutter, two screws, two toothpicks, the three pieces for the frame, and a screwdriver or drill.

Slide one of the small wooden beads onto the edge of a toothpick and cut the point off.

Put a little bit of glue onto the edge of the toothpick and then slide the bead over the glue and put it down to dry while you do the same on the other toothpick. Leave both toothpicks to dry completely.

Using a pencil, make a pencil mark 1 cm away from the first bead on the toothpick. Repeat this step on the other toothpick also.

Assembling the Body

Now that the glue is dry, push the toothpick through the top hole of the left arm. The bead should be on the left-hand side of the arm.

Ensure that the toothpick can turn easily in the hole of the acrobat by pushing it in and out of the hole. Do this for all the pieces as you put the acrobat together.

Next slide the body onto the toothpick through the top hole of the body first and then through the other arm. Ensure that both arms are facing the same direction.

Trim the toothpick, checking that you can still see the pencil line that you made earlier. Squeeze a little bit of glue onto the end of the toothpick just before the pencil line and gently slide the bead onto the toothpick ensuring that the glue does not ooze out of the bead and get onto the arm.
The arm must be able to swing freely on the toothpick. Use a tissue or an earbud to wipe off the excess glue.

Leave the acrobat to dry for about 5 minutes before you continue putting the rest of the body pieces together.

Repeat the whole process that you used for the arms to attach the legs to the body.

Leave the acrobat to dry for 5 minutes.

Use the side cutters to trim off any extra toothpick that’s it’s sticking out of the beads and sand the ends of all the beads.

Your Acrobat toy is almost ready!

Needle Threader Tip

For the next step, you’re going to need a needle threader. If you do not have one, use a piece of very thin copper wire and bend it in half so that it makes a small little loop. This will work in the same way as the needle threader.

Building the Frame

Take one of the long pieces and use the screwdriver to screw a screw into the hole that is 10cm from the bottom. The screw should just peep out the other side. Put some glue around the hole on one side of the small piece of dowel and push it onto the screw that is peeping out the opposite side.

Using a screwdriver or drill, join the two pieces together. Ensure that the screw is tight and that both pieces are touching. Wipe away any excess glue.

Repeat the step above with the other long piece and complete the frame. Put it aside to dry completely.

Once it is dry, put the frame down on the table in front of you with the little bar in the middle of the two legs, away from you.

Place your completed acrobat with its hands above its head (like a diving position), facing the table, between the two sides of the frame.

The Threading Process

1. Thread the end of the cord through the top hole on the left-hand side of the frame.
2. Go through the bottom hole on the left arm.
3. Through the little wooden bead.
4. In through the top hole of the right arm.
5. Through the bottom hole on the right side of the frame.
6. In through the top hole of the right side of the frame.
7. Into the bottom hole of the right arm.
8. Into the little wooden bead. (You may need the help of the needle threader or the copper wire to get the cord through.)
9. In through the top hole of the left arm.
10. Out through the bottom hole of the left frame.

Now that you are done threading the cord, check that your cord looks the same as the cord in the video or the diagram below. It is really important that this step is done correctly.

Finishing the Acrobat Toy

Turn the frame around 45° so that the acrobat is to your right (still facing downward) and the frame to your left.

Tighten the chord and make a single knot without pulling the two sides of the frame inward.

The cord should be tight, and the two legs of the frame should still be straight and not pulling inward.

Testing the Toy

It’s time to see if the acrobat works properly.

Hold the bottom of the toy in one of your hands and gently squeeze the bottom of the frame together. If the acrobat can do tricks easily, you can make a double or a triple knot. Your acrobat is complete!

If your Acrobat does not work you need to lay the Acrobat back down, undo the knot, and start the knot process again.

PRO TIP: After making the knot, the legs of the frame should be straight, and the acrobat should hang straight in between the two sides of the frame and swing easily. The tighter the cord is, the more the acrobat will not be able to do any tricks as there is too much force on the cord and it is restricting the acrobat’s movement.

The Simple Machine Science

Give your acrobat toy a go! What fun this is, right, but how does it all work?

When the bottom of the two legs (effort arms) of the frame are squeezed together (force is applied), they cause the two legs at the top of the frame (resistance arms) to pull apart, which creates tension on the cord, which in turn, causes the cord that goes through the acrobats’ arms to twist, and acrobat moves upward and over.

When you squeeze the frame again, the two legs at the top of the frame pull apart again, moving the acrobat upward and back over and the cord is untwisted. This twisting action is known as torsion.

The legs of the acrobat’s body are free to move back and forth with the body.

PLAY TIP!

By playing with the toy, you will learn how to control the acrobat and suspend the acrobat at the top of the frame too, by the amount and timing of the force you apply to the frame with your hands.
So, give it a go and see what amazing things your acrobat can do!

Teacher Tips! Classroom Idea

A great classroom challenge could involve making Acrobat Toys of various sizes with different characters to determine which requires more or less force on the effort arms for the best tricks. To do this you must calculate Mechanical Advantage.

Mechanical advantage is how much a simple machine helps us do something with the least amount of effort.

Steps to Calculate Mechanical Advantage:

The first step is to identify the Simple Machine called a lever. A lever in this toy is the fulcrum. The acrobat rotates above and over the fulcrum.

The next step is to find and measure the effort arm. The effort arm is the distance from where the force (of your hand) is applied, to the fulcrum or pivot.

The last step is to find and measure the load or resistance arm. The resistance arm is the distance from the fulcrum to where the acrobat swings or flips.

See the “Parts of the acrobat toy” diagram below:

Students can measure this toy with a ruler and calculate its mechanical advantage without an advanced formula.

A simple formula is Mechanical Advantage = Load/Effort

Important Student Information

Students must be made aware of the following important information:

• If the effort arm is longer than the resistance arm, the toy requires less force to move.
• If they are the same length, the force applied and the output force will be the same.
• If the effort arm is shorter than the resistance arm, the toy requires more force to move.

The point of the challenge is to compare different designs to see which one has the best mechanical advantage.