Since we had been studying slow changes and fast changes in Science for a while anyway, it made perfect sense to try it out! And unfortunately, there had also just been some major earthquakes in both Japan and Ecuador that same weekend, so the idea of creating earthquake proof buildings was a real life one to solve. And yeah, it would be fun. 🙂
We began by reading a pretty great Seymour Simon book on earthquakes to gain more information, and answer any questions that might come up about how they work. Knowing exactly what happens helps us build stronger buildings that would withstand the tremors.
We talked and discussed and made predictions and inferences. Then we got with our partners and planned–most on paper and some with some help from their iPad.
Then we got busy building. The 1st building part was actually spread over two days (an afternoon and then the next morning) because we ran out of time.
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We used this design cycle protocol to help us know what to do, and wrote down the timing so we could keep on track.
Some even tried out their prototype on the earthquake machine before the “real” deal. They got some ideas about redesign or shoring up their foundations.
Caught some groups in their planning stages:
We took videos of our trials, and many kiddos voiced their ideas for redesign in their recordings. We all did some writing/thinking about it, but I’ll share those in another post, since after I add our videos, this piece will already take you 7 hours to read it! Thanks for hanging in there–it’s worth it, I promise!!
We had an amazing 1st-day-back-from-Spring-Break today! Our principal, Mrs. Sisul, has been learning about engineering and STEM with Legos, and volunteered to come set us up with some Lego challenges if we were interested. Well, yes, of course, Rm. 202 friends were interested! Luckily she was free this afternoon and came on up with her big ‘ole box of Legos! Check out what happened! 🙂
She started with a quick reminder of what STEM means (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and then introduced what we would be doing: every kid would get a card with a challenge and they would work to do that challenge with Legos. Pretty straightforward, right? Well, they she led us through a great line of thinking about how we work best, and how kiddos would have the choice of how they tackled the challenge: alone, with a partner, a group of 3, a group of 4–whatever worked for each kiddo. She shared her example that she knows that as a learner she likes to be able to bounce ideas off of another learner, and so she’d focus on finding another person to work with. She asked me to share my strategy, and I talked about how I knew that that plan would DEFINITELY not work for me. I am the kind of learner who needs to process and plan by myself first, and then I might want to work with someone else to blend ideas, get a critique or ask a question. I know that if I went with a partner right off the bat, I wouldn’t have anything to share with them–so if I was Mrs. Sisul’s partner, I wouldn’t be a very helpful partner! Right off the top I could tell that Rm. 202 kiddos were thinking about what would work for them, and they knew what would be best. We had all sorts of groups–singles, partners and groups of 3. Some kiddos worked alone, but right next to another friend so they could get feedback that way.
Ok, once teams were developed, Mrs. Sisul gave the guidelines for how kiddos would get their Legos. She walked them through a planning session where they were to really think through what kinds of Legos they’d need. She would call names of kiddos 3-4 at a time, and they’d have 30 seconds to “block shop” and then get started. Once everyone had an initial visit to the pile, they were free to come back for more. And since it would be virtually impossible for me to explain the amazingness with which these kiddos followed this protocol, I had to record it. Check out what it was like when Mrs. Sisul dumped the Legos:
Once we got started, I roamed around and got some footage of them working. I know, kiddos wanted me to do the challenges, too–but I couldn’t document it to share with you if I did that! Maybe next time. 🙂
Here are some videos that share more of their thinking while they got started:
This one has some great thinking about what happens when things are hard (which this was for some of us!):
There’s one more, and it’s really the one I’m the most tickled about. It’s an example of what happened in our room when we put 20 kids and 2000 Legos together. I want you to think about what you see first, but then I’ll tell you why I liked it:
As I watched this video, I noticed these things:
quiet voices
pleases and thank yous
kiddos finding pieces for others
sharing
everyone just taking what they needed
no one grabbing, hogging or arguing
kiddos respectfully letting others into the circle
What did you see? (Please leave us a comment and let us know–Rm. 202 kiddos would LOVE to hear what you thought and would LOVE to know you watched their super hard working!)
Ok, I know you’re wondering what some of those challenges looked like, and how they tackled them. Here are some examples. And yes, they told me I could. 🙂
This was definitely one of those touchstone moments in our classroom that we will return to for many days and weeks to come (darn, I only wish we’d done it earlier in the year!). I know that we walked away with many things (and I hope to share what those were in THEIR WORDS soon), but one of them definitely was that there is not one way to solve a problem. We could each access each of these challenges in our own way, and use whatever skills, ideas–and Legos!–that we wanted to in order to achieve our goal. One friend even decided to do the same challenge twice to make it even harder for himself! We are builders and thinkers and problem-solvers in Rm. 202 and this was definitely right up our alley! Come back any time, Mrs. Sisul!
Welcome to a new week! Let’s get started with some super pictures. This week’s gonna be a good one. 🙂
We have been working on a design challenge in science lately (more later!), and this picture is of some friends working on it. Even better, it’s a picture of first graders independently documenting their learning with videos explaining how their design works. Amazing. It’s cool when 5th graders do it, but when you’re 6 and 7YO and you can do that, somehow it seems better. And now that we’re all 1:1 in KSD, it’ll continue to happen over and over. What will these friends look like with tech and learning when they’re in 5th grade? I’m excited to find out!
Here’s a video of this same work:
Can’t wait to share more! Have a great week, friends!
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 