1. Children’s Engineering Pneumatics & Hydraulics
Bringing
Children’s Engineering
to the Elementary Classrooms
Unit #8
Pneumatics & Hydraulics
Created by Miss Kelley Davis
Page County Public Schools Division-Wide STEM Coach

2. What is pneumatics, isn’t that when you get a bad cold and can’t breathe?
That is NOT one of my SOLs. I don’t have time to help other grades cover their SOLS, I have my own.
I teach elementary school. Pneumatics is too hard for my students!!!
Hydraulics? isn’t that when your car bounces to the beat of your jams???

3. Trust me...it is VERY important and useful to teach in the elementary school!!!

4. Let’s talk about Pneumatics and Hydraulics!
Pneumatics and Hydraulics are called fluid power.
Gases and liquids are both fluids.
Fluids can flow and take the shape of their container.
It is much cheaper than using electricity!
Pneumatics is air pressure.
Hydraulics is liquid pressure.

5. Soooooo, what is the difference between hydraulics and pneumatics
Soooooo, what is the difference between hydraulics and pneumatics? Who was paying attention?
Hydraulics:
It is a liquid!
Think: hydro = water = liquid
Pneumatics:
It is a gas!
Think: pneumonia = lungs = air

6. Where would you find hydraulics?
car brakes (it stops all 4 tires at once)
gas pumps (draws fuel from the storage tank)
airplanes (helps operate their control panels)
heavy equipment like excavators & skid loaders (lifts & lowers objects)
car lifts (when you take your broken car to the garage)
trash compactors (makes them strong enough to crush all your waste)
hydraulic press (can crush almost anything)
wheel chair lift (helps humans get in and out of their cars)
dishwashers (helps increase water pressure)
amusement park rides (provides and controls motion like on a Ferris Wheel)
theaters for plays (helps lift and lower the stage)
elevators (makes it move and stop in time!)
bakeries (in mass production it lifts, flips, and moves food on a conveyor belt
barber & office chairs (that’s how you move up and down)

7. Now let’s have some fun with pneumatics!!!

8. Air Pressure Air is all around us! We can’t see it or feel it.
Air presses on us with a great force.
But we don’t feel it because the air inside our bodies is pushing back!
Just wanted to point out MATTER is an SOL...just sayin’

9. Pneumatics Pneumatics is a Greek word that stands for: wind air
breathe
Pneumatics is movement by compressed or pressurized air
What’s that?
A synonym!!!
Another SOL covered!

10. Advantages of Pneumatics
simple design
reliable (long operating life and low maintenance)
safe (low change of fire compared to hydraulics)

11. History of Pneumatic Inventions
1st pneumatic invention was the blow gun used by hunters
3000 BC: small puffs of air to help start a fire
1500 BC: The hand bellow used by blacksmiths
1650: Engineer Otto van Guericke invented the 1st air pump

12. History of Pneumatic Inventions
1870: Alfred Beach patented a pneumatic train subway in New York which used a giant pneumatic tube
1871: Samuel Ingersoll created the pneumatic drill
1887: John Dunlap used the 1st air-filled tire
1890: Charles Brody King created the pneumatic hammer

13. History of Pneumatic Inventions
1904: John Wanamaker began the 1st pneumatic tube service by sending mail from his Chicago post office to the Winslow rail road station
1900s: jet engines
1963: Walt Disney introduced the “Enchanted Tiki Room” featuring Audio-Animatronic birds that would talk to customers as they dined
Oh my, a timeline...
Isn’t that an SOL?

14. Can you name some things that use pneumatics in our everyday life???

16. Here are just a few places you’ll find pneumatics...
air brakes on trucks, buses, and trains
dental drill
engines
pipe organ
air guns and drills
tires
spray painters
screen door
Legos
exercise machines
inflatable structures like bouncy houses and balloons
roller coasters
air horns
vacuums
air/tire pumps
tools
bank (drive-up tellers)

17. Now go play!!!
But please be careful because...

18. So what did you learn? Talk your students through the skills.
Show them using the manipulatives.
Make them talk you through recreating.
All answers are good answers!!!

19. Now how am I supposed to use this in my classroom?
When teaching matter, we study solids, liquids, and GASES!
When reading stories, use them in projects. For example, design a way to launch the gingerbread man across the water so the fox won’t eat him.
When teaching measurement, use the tubing and syringes of various sizes to see who can move a ball the farthest.
When teaching about China, design a catapult to launch a warrior over the Great Wall.
When teaching about electricity and wind energy.
Can you think of other ways???

20. pneumatic pop up habitats
pneumatic dump truck
pneumatic creatures
pneumatic pop up habitats

21. The most important thing to remember is... it’s all about that Bloom’s
Level 4 = analyze & organize
Level 5 = design, invent, modify, imagine
Level 6 = solve & evaluate