Friday, November 11, 2016

Spaghetti Bridges?!



Hi Everyone!  I know it has been awhile.  So many things happen every day in our classroom, but I have a difficult time deciding what and what not to document.  One of my favorite things to do with our students is STEM challenges.  The kids get really excited and often there is a mess in involved. However, walking around listening to them have discussions about how to solve the problem and seeing them work together to make it happen, makes it all worthwhile.

Yesterday we tried a STEM challenge called Spaghetti Bridges.  I put students in groups of 4 and posted a picture of some design examples and had them choose their design and talk about a plan. When they had the plan  I gave them a bag of spaghetti, a handful of rubber bands, a roll of tape and turned them loose.  I usually just walk around and observe for the first 10 minutes and let them experiment.  With 3rd graders I have found that they need  a little push in the right direction, maybe a few suggestions. Well, after an hour we had a lot of spaghetti all over the classroom, but no bridges.

Everyday is a learning experience for both the students and myself and I know that just like anything else, it takes practice.






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