Day 1 of Holiday Programme - S.T.E.M
Making Your own Marionette
Two simple types of puppets are the finger puppet, which is a tiny puppet that fits onto a single finger, and the sock puppet,
A Marionette is a much more complicated type of puppet that is suspended and controlled by a number of strings connected to the head, back and limbs, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer.
Science Of Marionette
Movement of the marionettes relies on the controller pulling up on the strings. The controller is the person manipulating the toy. The design of the marionette may assist students in visualising when a pull is applied. The movement of the marionettes provides evidence that a pull or push has been applied to the toy.
These toys also rely on the pull of gravity to move. Gravity pulls downward, working in the opposite direction to the pull applied by the controller. The marionettes may be used as a teaching tool when considering the effects of objects being pulled towards the Earth.