My Box O' Fun
These activities were great for those days when we had
outside disruptions (assemblies, field trips, etc) but you wanted your kids engaged and learning. I called them discovery
days at school – where the focus was on engineering, experimenting and
re-engineering. I kept a “box o’ fun” in my classroom that contained treasures like
file cards, old film canisters, plastic water bottle lids, masking tape,
cardboard cereal boxes, oaktag, marbles, straws, wooden skewers (my husband could never
figure out where they went) and any other thing that could be used as
building materials. Ruler, measuring tapes, stop watches, etc. all added to the fun.
All I had to do was list a limited number of materials, post a
challenge on the board and give them a limited amount of time before they would
have to test and share their solutions.
Here are some tried and true problems that I used (any materials can be
substituted):
Safe Transport
Materials: file card,
12 inches of masking tape, two wooden skewers, four plastic bottle caps (you
can also add things like scissors, stop watches etc)
Challenge: Build a vehicle
that will transport a Lego man (plastic frog, eraser, whatever) safely down a
ramp. We measured distance and speed,
averaged runs, changed ramp angles, talked about variables, graphed data,
etc. (Caution, principal may visit to
see what the hubbub is about!) Motivated
by bragging rights, lots of learning occurred – and of course you could
challenge them to improve on their designs!
Straw Rockets
Materials: Straws,
clay, tape, cardboard
Challenge: Make a
rocket that will travel the farthest distance (or land closest to the garbage
can, etc). Although there are commercial
straw rocket launchers, you can make one (or the kids can) easily out of a
juice bottle with these directions.
Even simpler straw rockets can be made with bendy straws and
launched the old fashioned way with these directions. http://manmadediy.com/chris/posts/1168-how-to-make-a-bendy-straw-rocket-launcher
Balloon Rockets
Materials: Balloons,
string, tape
Challenge: Make a
rocket that will travel fastest along a string.
Students can hold the string at both ends. I liked to get a couple of stop watches from
the PE people to time the rockets as they go. There are even links and questions found here.
Want students to study payload? Change the challenge and have them launch the rocket straight up as in this Rocket Transportation activity.
Parachutes
Materials: one square
foot of saran wrap from the cafeteria, 3 feet of thread (home ec room), tape
and paper clip weights. .
Challenge: Build a
parachute that will spend the longest time aloft.We used the
stair wells and stop watches for testing
Boats
Materials: one square foot of aluminum foil and pennies
or golf balls, container of water for floating
Challenge: build the
boat that will hold the most pennies (or golf balls).
Catapults
Materials: Popsicle
sticks (rulers, etc) tape, rubber bands and cotton balls.
Challenge: Build a
catapult that will launch a cotton ball the farthest.
Writing S’more
When we learned about robots, I had the students write the “code”
for making a s’more –if I could build the s’more from the directions, they
could have it. Of course they had to write
every step…you cannot just “pick up
a marshmallow”….you fingers have to open and close on it, etc. Great way to
introduce students to programming.
Write it, Build it
Materials Vary: Legos, clay, toothpicks, Lincoln logs
Give students two identical sets of 10 Legos (or whatever)
and have students build something out one set.
Have them write building directions for their partner. Give the partner the directions and other set
of identical legos and see how close they get using the directions.
Stop-Motion Animation:
Looking for a little techno-fun? Kids love stop-motion videos. Show them some great examples (from youtube)
and ask them to create their own to demonstrate a concept they learned this
year. Stop motion videos. Here's how to make them with Windows Movie Maker
What's in your bag o' tricks? Do you have simple challenges to add to the list?
