Engineering: Sunny Sandbox Construction Take 1 and 2

With construction for the base of our sandbox completed, the scholar's next steps are to select the material for the covering as-well-as the shape of the material. After each pair made their decision concerning the material, they began the task of attaching the material to the base. This step proved far more challenging than the scholars anticipated. After several attempts and a great deal of masking tape balled up or stuck on anything other than the structure, we came together for debriefing. The scholars all agreed that our engineering today was a 'successful failure'. We learned that we need to work on planning and collaboration. We generated a list of steps we thought should be followed in order to be successful. As the teacher, I now had my mini lesson for the next day.

Attempt #2:  We began with a quick recap of the previous day and read over the list of steps. For the mini lesson, I decided to have the class coach me and my partner through the steps they had listed. As the class coached us through the steps, I could see the connections being made and the eagerness to get building growing! The the evidence of our successful second attempts are pictured below. 

Samantha waiting on partner Liam to bring more tape!

Tate and Michael demonstrating collaboration makes work easier and fun!

Carter and Evan showing that 2 hands ARE better than one!

Aidan and Aariz's successful 2nd attempt.

Eleanor and Elle's successful 2nd attempt.

Sherif and Nolan's successful 2nd attempt.

Michael and Tate's successful 2nd attempt.

Ariana and Ella's successful 2nd attempt.

Niklas and Gavin's successful 2nd attempt.

This is the structure the class coached me and my partner to construct following their steps