Posts Tagged ‘tape’

What Do You Do When…

Students are unable to access their files and can’t work on what you had planned? Last night, we had an email warning that desktop folders had disappeared. Well, 4th graders have been working on self-portraits using MS Paint and they were unable to access them.

Perhaps that’s one reasonĀ I couldn’t fall asleep last night – my mind was working overtime to figure out the best thing to do with the students. Design thinking was at the forefront of ideas but what supplies did I have at school? That’s a bit hard to determine at 2:00 AM!

Index cards and masking tape turned out to be plentiful so that’s what we went with!

Challenge:

This changed over time after getting feedback from each group. The first group worked with only a half yard of tape. At the end of class, I told them they were my test group and I needed feedback for the other two classes. All agreed more tape was needed. The biggest request was duct tape, along with moans and groans that the masking tape wasn’t sticky AT ALL! Oh well, you work with what you have!

Using the Launch Cycle as a guideline, students were given one minute to listen to ideas from their group. Next, one minute to sketch ideas – no talking.

Then, another minute to decide how to incorporate designs into one to be used for the creation stage.

Yes, they were moved quickly through the process but I only have them for 30 minutes!

Building began and we had a huge variety of structures – some worked, others didn’t. Of course, the tendency for students is to build the highest structure possible without regard as to whether or not it can stand on its own! There were several “Leaning Towers of Pisa!”

The above pair worked so quietly and methodically, no one heard a peep out of them! The group below built straight up but definitely had a plan. One member kept his group on track with constant remindersĀ “that the base has to be propped up.”

As we reflected, we talked about success and failure. Did the building proceed according to their sketches? What adjustments were made? Did you give up if something didn’t work the first time? (Yes, some groups did!) I even told the students that in an activity like this, failure was expected. Why? That’s the best way to learn!

Was it loud? YES!! Much louder that I like but every single person was on task. What I liked was watching students who are usually quiet or who don’t always feel secure in answering questions in front of the class, absolutely blossom in this environment! Will we do this again? You bet!

And, to think, not one child asked why we weren’t using technology in the tech lab!!