Remote-Control Machines: Farm

Construct four models of realistic farm equipment and four models of special attachments for them. Then control them with a multi-channel, radio-frequency remote-control unit. Gain engineering design experience as you follow the visual assembly diagrams to piece these models together, configuring their motors, gears, wheels, axles, levers, frames, and connection points to all fit together perfectly. Build a tractor model that drives forward, backward, and turns left and right. Assemble the attachments for the tractor including a cultivator, disc harrow, hay rake, and seeder. Fix these to the back of the tractor one at a time to change the function of the tractor. Make a model of a combine harvester that moves across the floor as if it were slowly traversing a wheat field, reaping this year’s bumper crop. Make a farm truck model with an interesting pivot point at its midsection, allowing it to turn more easily. Build a windrower and experiment with its highly maneuverable wheel configuration. A 64-page, full-color manual guides you through model building with step-by-step illustrated instructions. Read the manual to learn how the real-life versions of these awesome machines work to make farming faster and more efficient. Learn how their engines work and how the attachments use physics and simple machines to their advantage. Read about other scientific concepts and ideas related to farming in the manual.

About Thames & Kosmos: Thames & Kosmos was founded in 2001 by a science museum director and her son, who saw the great need and demand for better science education materials — resources for parents and their children that are more engaging, more effective, more relevant, and more fun.