Use cams and followers to turn spinning motion into animated movement.
Learners build
A hand-powered automaton that uses rotating parts to animate a scene.
Learners start by building a crank-driven frame that turns rotation into repeated motion, then attach characters or scenery that move with the mechanism.
From there, they can redesign it as a moving landscape, story scene, character moment, science model, or collaborative animated display.
Educator Resources
Student-facing slides introduce the concepts, guide the activity, and help learners reflect on what changed. Educator materials support setup, pacing, discussion, and extensions so this can work in classrooms, libraries, homeschool groups, clubs, or makerspaces.
What's included
Choose a pack size to see how the component quantities change for one learner, a small group, or a full class.