Ramps and Roller Coasters!

Today we continued to work on force and motion while engineering ramps that would make our truck land on the correct grid. We changed the incline (high is faster, lower is slower) and even added friction (bubble ramp, fabric, felt). 

My room was a disaster there were 3D shapes, toy trucks, felt, fabric, and marbles EVERYWHERE but I wouldn't change it for anything.  We were being great engineers working hard to solve our problems and changing our designs as needed.  

Rosie Revere Engineer

I love this book!!!! Not only does it rhyme (kindergarten teachers love that), it's about perseverance, creativity, and the engineering process. 

I had to put my favorite quote from the book  in the picture above. 

After reading Rosie Revere Engineer , I gave the students 20 minutes to complete the task of building the tallest tower out of 20 solo cups. It had to be free standing and stand long enough for my to measure it. 

Sounds easy right?!?! 

Well, then I put them in groups.  That's where it got  difficult. They had to TALK about their ideas and decide which ones were best. They tried ideas and persevered when the failed. I loved watching them and listening to their conversations! 

Here are the end results! 

Group #1- 40"

Group #2 - 29"

Group #3- 47"

Group #4 - 24"

Group # 5 - 24"

Can you tell they were proud? 

Each group came up and talked about what they did. The group that built the tallest tower said they had great team work. The 3 teams whose towers were 24", 24", and 29" had a lot of arguing and didn't want to share the cups. They realized once we finished how important team work and good conversations can be when working with a team to complete a task.