At the end of the fourth grade weather lab, I wanted to do a brief lesson about empathy which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. I recently heard on a podcast that empathy is often the missing piece from science and engineering classrooms, while the ultimate goal of these disciplines is to help others or the environment. I explained to my students that I have greater empathy for my mom’s arthritis, since I have fractured my wrist. I wanted them to understand how difficult it is to function with only one hand, so I set-up some tasks for them to complete with their non-dominate hand. As they struggled with these everyday chores, they became innovative, and the struggle became productive.

Tasks:
Write Merry Christmas, fold the paper, and put the paper in an envelope.
Tie a ribbon around the box and tie a bow.
Open a water bottle and take off the wrapper around a plastic fork.
Tear off four pieces of tape.
Cut out a Christmas tree.

 

PreFirst engineers (The Great 8) were tasked with constructing “ice” structures using various pieces of Styrofoam.

Although this seems like a simple task, we were meeting the following standards:

• Identify Styrofoam, a manmade material, that doesn’t decompose quickly and cannot be recycled. Discuss ways to reuse Styrofoam and ways to reduce its use.
• Strengthen fine motor and eye hand coordination skills.
• Investigate physical properties of materials.
• Develop creativity and communication skills.
• Name and construct 3D shapes (pyramids, cubes, and prisms) and explore the number of vertices and sides in each.
• Problem solve and develop critical thinking skills.
• Explore balance.
• Use the Design Process-Identify Problem, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save Styrofoam from shipping boxes and build with it at home.

This lab was all about engineering with a Christmas twist! Second grade engineers learned first hand about the forces of gravity and friction when they constructed ziplines for Santa. Their goal was to send Santa from the second floor to the first safely through the rotunda. We didn’t want him to fall out, turn upside down, or get stuck midway. Although he could have a seatbelt or a chair, he could not be tied to his zipline. Collaborative teams had a choice of four tables filled with possible materials. After constructing the ziplines, we tested them. If there had been additional time, we would have compared design choices, discussed results, improved our designs, and retested them to complete the Engineer Design Process. Our zipline was fishing line, but how might our results have changed if we used a zipline of twine or yarn? Make one at home and send me a photo or video.

Ziplines from Mrs. Harwell’s Class:

Science can be big and explosive or it can be as simple as the following experiment to develop that sense of wonder and curiosity. After presenting background information about how paper is made, we reviewed why some objects sink and others float. Then, we reviewed the Scientific Method. In this investigation, we pondered what would happen if we folded the petals of a paper flower toward the center and dropped the flower onto the surface of the water. The flowers appeared to magically open. You need to see this in action. Click here to watch a video. What forces the flower to bloom? I repeated the investigation and changed some variables – flowers of various sizes, flowers cut from tagboard, copy paper, and construction paper, and petals folded in different sequences – to see how our results might change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we were engineers and made our own paper designs that would open when dropped in water. I saw a large variety of ideas, including stars, hands, butterflies, and turtles. We experienced mixed results and learned from each design.

PreK scientists have been studying squirrels. How do squirrels keep from falling when they are jumping from tree to tree? That discussion led us to the topic of balance.

We tried to balance on one foot and then the other. We even tried to stand on one foot with our eyes closed! Can you balance a book on your head?

I challenged my youngest physicists to balance a variety of other objects. They especially enjoyed balance bird. How does it balance on a pencil eraser and the tip of your finger?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of lab, we worked in collaborative pairs and used balance to build structures from a model. As we balanced the blocks, we strengthened our eye hand coordination and visual perception skills. Try this at home.

To exit the room, we walked across a balance beam.
Click here to watch a video about how to keep your bike in balance.

A big thank you to Mrs. Lilge for helping me take photos today!

Makerspaces can be anywhere! What a great example of using loose parts to develop engineering skills while enjoying time outside!