Playground Innovation Museum

BOPDs welcomed Mr Scott's second grade class to our museum on playground innovation. This gave us another chance to showcase our understanding of forces and motion through the problems that we tried solving involving playground equipment.

Contraptions

Based on the features of a non-fiction text they analzyed, BOPDs chose features that they thought necessary to relay information about the contraption that they made for their experiment on force. BOPDs thought that a way to test if their information is sufficient is if they could challenge parents to replicate their contraption. Are you up for a challenge?

Playground Innovation

Ms Montilla read the story of Iggy Peck Architect to get us thinking about the word, "innovate". There were many examples of innovation in the story. BOPDs were challenged to think like Iggy Peck and innovate the ES playground. To do this, first we needed to analyze the problems that come up while playing so we went down with our science notebooks and wrote observations. Once done, we went back to the class. We reviewed our notes and chose a problem and a plan of innovation using our knowledge of force and motion. We also created a model of the particular equipment on which we chose to focus. Next, we write an informative text about our experience.

Mass and distance

BOPDs performed an experiment that put two ideas together: force and mass. First they used an informative text to find out how to perform the experiment and this helped them set it up and prepare to perform it. Then they wrote their individual hypothesis based on the problem posed. Working in threes, they explored who mass affects the distance traveled by an object. Using gram weights, cups and tape measure, they each took roles to ensure the validity of the experiment. They tabulated results on the experiment sheet and interpreted the information to write their conclusion. Some students took the experiment further by adding more grams to to the cup and then predicting outcomes. A few groups innovated by taping the tape measure along the projected path to facilitate the accuracy of their measurement in centimeters.

Experimenting on friction

BOPDs researched about friction. Using the information, they designed an experiment that asks,"How does friction affect motion?". Borrowing a ramp from Mr Kearns' class, they set out to test the distance a golf ball would travel on different surfaces. They went all around ISM for testing, armed with their science notebooks to write results and reflections.

Finding "friction"

Using what we know about non-fiction text, we searched for information about friction to help us plan our next experiment on force and motion. There were many books to choose from and we shared these books. We looked for a definition, then we added related words. We used it in a sentence and then finally drew a plan on how to test for friction.

Gravity

Coming from much excitement about their contraptions last week, BOPDs revisited their creations and labeled the part of their contraption that may provide evidence of gravity, which is the force that made the marble move. This provided a start to their reflection on gravity.

The thrill of science

The thrill of science is alive in our learning. The questions that pop and the responses to the way things move will drive our learning to innovate when solving problems.

Innovate

BOPDs were beyond excited to get started on our unit on problem solving and predicting though exploring forces and motion. We reviewed our tweets about Roborumble to dig deep into our understanding of how things move. We also watched a clip of the movie, 'Sandlot' and tried to determine what the problem was in the story because we know that scientists must learnt to analyze situations to identify problems. After watching a movie about machines called Rube Goldberg, Ms Montilla posed a simple challenge to tune into how students would innovate to solve a problem. Using two objects found in our classroom, she challenged students to move a marble to a bell using anything in our classroom. They are allowed to start the process by rolling the marble but everything else must be designed to work on its own.

Measuring success

Students show their reactions to how successful their classmates' experiments were for our tuning in exercise into force and motion. This inquiry has captured our minds and hearts.