MARBLE RUNS, MAZES, GAMES

Last week was book fair.  This means two classes on the STEAM side while a subset of students shop at the book fair.  In the past we have done a movie, free choice stations, directed stations, and more.  None of these "worked" well.

This year we tried an engineering design challenge to create a marble run, maze, or game or some combination!  This was a HUGE success. 

95% of the groups created a working model of a marble activity.  The students had 1 cardboard box such as a cereal box, 3 cardboard tubes, a scrap box and UNLIMITED TAPE AND GLUE. 

I would get more masking tape since this was easier to manipulate and cut compared to packing tape.  I would find a way to secure the materials after the initial selection since many could not respect this limit.  Finally, I would start collecting materials earlier and CUT the longer tubes into halves or thirds.   This way everyone has more equality in materials.

The students created a variety of projects and were extremely creative.  This week, students will share their creations with their classmates and take an e-survey/quiz/assessment of the project!

Working on paper airplanes for spring book fair.

Here is the engineering design process worksheet that we started with:

I will post more pictures this week, but here are a few of the projects in action!