5th Grade Marble Roller Coasters

Feb
26,
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5th graders spent this rotation creating marble roller coasters.  As always we started with the task and constraints.


The trickiest part of this challenge was the time constraint. It was fast and furious to get it done! There was lots of teamwork and problem solving, and, as always, they came up with some amazing designs! Some groups even had time left over to name and decorate their design.






















Check out the video of some of the roller coasters in action!






6th grade - Lego Mindstorms

Feb
14,
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We have a bunch of Lego Mindstorm NXT kits that were handed down to us from the middle school. After a lot of sorting and organizing, we finally had all the parts to get started. P5 and P7 were my guinea pigs this week and they did great! It was a little slow at the beginning during the building phase but they quickly got the hang of it. Then they experimented with programming using the on-board commands and using the Mindstorm software on our computers. The most awesome part is watching them figure it out on their own and helping each other as they hit roadblocks.







5th Grade Containers

Feb
2,
0
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5th graders spent this rotation creating containers. Sounds like an easy task, right? Not so much! These containers had specific constraints and limited materials. 

 After discussing the difference between hinges, latches, and handles, we talked about the materials and specific constraints.

 I love seeing all the variations they come up. So much creativity!

















5th Grade Bucket Towers

Jan
18,
0
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5th graders have been practicing their tower building skills by working in groups to build bucket towers. We started with the task.

Then we discussed the materials and constraints.

Students spent 3 minutes brainstorming and planning with their group. We talk about the importance of working together to find the best way... not just getting your way. 

During the "Create, Test, and Improve" phase, students built their tower and began their testing. As pennies were added to the bucket, they watched for weak points and reinforced with any remaining materials they had.

The final step of the Engineering Design Process is Communicate. Each group shared their design and explained the decision making that went behind it.

We had a ton of different design ideas! It's so fun to watch the different towers they come up with. Some of our towers even held all 100 pennies that we had available for testing!



































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