Rolling Light Traces

For the ramps and rollers themed tinkering inventive playsets (TIPs) that I’ve been working on with the Tinkering Studio and other LEGO playful learning museum network partners, we’ve been thinking about ways to let learners look closely at the way their creations move and rotate.

One recent idea is using long exposure photographs to trace the movements of different points on the rollers. This idea was inspired by experiments from Sebastian, Amy and Paul D. who attached blinking LEDs to falling, spinning or swinging objects for teacher workshops at the Exploratorium.

My idea for the set up for this activity was to create little magnetic LED throwies which could be attached to metal pieces on the rolling objects. With a more robust set of materials that worked in a similar way it would be easy to change the position of the lights to see how different parts of the roller move.

I used an iPhone app called ‘slow shutter’ to take the long exposure photos. It was a little tricky to get the timing right to release the object and press the camera button so that the trace would get captured. The treadmill helped because the object spun for longer and I also used a long piece of honeycomb cardboard to block the roller until the right moment. It would be good to automate the coordination of the release and the shutter somehow in a future version.

I think these results are really interesting and I especially like how you can see some of the recycled materials used in construction. I think this could get learners thinking more deeply about both rolling objects and light painting techniques. We’ll be doing more experiments with ramps and rollers to see how we can uncover the phenomena and create an open kit where learners can direct their own playful investigations.

The LEGO Playful Learning Museum Network initiative is made possible through generous support from the LEGO Group.