Day 2 of The Gingerbread Man

Day 2 began with a mini lesson about being purposeful or intentional in our material selection as-well-as how much is needed. The scholars were then sent off to chat with their partner about the design and materials. They were instructed to write up their material list and the amount needed for each. I was most impressed with the conversations the pairs were having, they really showed they were really thinking about the design. One person from the group was the materials collector. Their job was to bring me their list of materials. I also told the class that as they were constructing if they found they needed more of something or an item they had not initially requested, they could come back to me for more....the catch....they had to be able to explain why they needed more or why they needed the new material.

As I walked around to observe, question or lend a hand I was most impressed with the quality of the construction. I believe that by having the scholars be more intentional with their materials they were slowing down and being more purposeful with each step. 

Engineering with The Gingerbread Man

We are knee deep in our next fairy tale engineering unit....The Gingerbread Man. Our initial focus was on retelling the story and creating a Double Bubble Map comparing two versions of the story. After this, we delved into a discussion about how the story could have had a happier ending had the Gingerbread Man thought of a different way to cross the stream. This was perfect because it got the scholars ready for their engineering problem.

The Problem: How can we as engineers design a way to help the Gingerbread Man cross the river without getting wet?

We Imagined: a zip line, jet pack to fly across, stepping stones to run or hop across, a boat, a bridge or even find a way to go around.

Next we Asked: 

What do we know:  GBM cannot swim, GBM will fall apart if he gets wet, cannot trust an animal or person for help

What we need to know:  How big/heavy is the GBM, how wide is the river, what materials will sink or float, best plan and how to build.

From here, we turned our attention back to the Imagine and decided on the best ideas: zip line, bridge or boat. The scholars then decided on the idea/plan they wanted to engineer.

Next came materials. We came up with 8 different materials that could be used by one or all of our ideas. We spent time discussing how we might use each material in the different designs.

Now, the scholars were ready to draw their designs and make their material selections.

GHS Football Visits Cannon

Tuesday during our study of poetry, we got a BIG surprise....our door opened and in walked 3 GHS Mustang Football Players and their coach, Coach Jackson. After introductions, one of the players read an Elephant and Piggie, our favorite. We loved our surprise!

Word Movers

During word work the scholars worked in pairs to make as many words as possible. They used an app called, Word Movers to record the words they were able to make.

The letters they used were: a, e, h,  r, t

These are the words the scholars were able to make: a, he, at, art, the, ear, are, rat, tea, her, hat, eat, ate, hate, rate, hear, tear.  They were able to make not one but two secret words! The secret words were: heart or Earth.

These scholars are doing such a terrific job applying their knowledge of letters, sounds and words!

Engineering Vehicles

We finished our study of Geometry with an engineering challenge, design and construct a vehicle using everyday items that represent 3D shapes. This engineering challenge not only enabled the scholars to apply their knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes, they also learned about different types of vehicles, their purpose, parts and how they are powered.

The scholars initial thinking of vehicles was limited to cars, trucks, vans, buses, trains and planes. However their thinking changed once they defined a vehicle: a thing that moves people or items from one place to another. Our list of vehicles really changed and now included: sleds, bikes, scooters, skateboards, tanks, sailboats, rowboats and even a horse. The horse spurred a big discussion because it is a living thing while everything else was man made. In the end the class did agree that a horse could get a person or things from one place to another, but they kept it off the list because it was living.

We also learned about a vehicles energy source. We learned that vehicles can run on: gasoline, special gas made from plants like corn and peanuts but they are costly, electricity and even some use solar energy. We noted that there was a place in Grapevine that you could park your electric car and plug it in to charge while you shop and eat! We looked at vehicles and their parts to identify 2D and 3D shapes too.

After all this, the scholars decided on the vehicle they wanted to design and engineer. Once they drew their design, they began gathering their materials and engineered their vehicles.

Sleeping Beauty Part 2

Day 2 started with a whole class discussion time. During this discussion pairs shared frustrations, challenges, new insight and asked some great questions demonstrating they were really thinking about their designs. One really awesome question came from Tate. He asked if it was okay to anchor the bridge to the bottom of the river. Tate went on to explain that real bridges are anchored to the bottom so they did not float or blow away. My reply was not what Tate was hoping to hear, I sent him back to the original problem and constraints to determine for himself whether or not it would be okay. After reading again, Tate decided it would be okay since there wasn't anything saying he could not anchor the bridge.

After the class discussion, the pairs went back to their bridges and made some improvements before testing. Many pairs added more supports, several did indeed anchor their bridge to river bottom and one pair added side rails for added support. Then we began testing. Since I forgot my pennies, we used tiles as the common form of weight/load. The winning bridge was designed and engineered by Aidan and Elle. Their bridge held over 100 tiles!