November 4 Update — Making Surveys and Building Things!

Today was an exciting day of building and making. First, we introduced the new unit and talked about some of the things we will be doing. Then, everyone re-organized their blue binders and put some items they were proud of from unit one into their black portfolios, so we can keep track of our best work over time. Once all of the projects from the unit have been signed by parents, then they, too, will go into the black binder.

Then, I asked everyone to take a yellow sticky and put on it a quick explanation of whether or not technology has had a positive or negative effect on mankind overall. I created a chart for the board to post the sticky representing the spectrum of our opinions on this topic, with positive on the far right and negative on the far left. Some people felt it was both positive and negative, so their posting was in the middle. We will revisit our feelings on this topic at the end of the unit.

We then talked about how great inventions or technology get made and looked at some examples of products invented for the Olympics that took place here in Vancouver in 2010. We also talked about the engineering design process and reviewed how creative thinking occurs. Students were put in groups of two and given the task of building a structure that would be as tall as possible and still be able to support the weight of a small stuffy mouse in the classroom for 15 seconds. The constraints for the project (as we discussed this as part of the design process) involved time and materials (each person was allowed up to 100 index cards and 2 feet of masking tape.) The students created a plan together, showed it to Ms. D, then received their materials for building. They had to make many redesigns and adjustments, and kept testing their structures during the entire time. Everyone had a great time building and it was a good introduction to thinking about design, technology, and the creative thinking process, all of which will play a role in our learning during this unit.

Then I introduced the math assessment. Rather than doing a simple test, I provided students with an opportunity to show what they know while also learning how to do something new. We worked with Survey Monkey, one of many survey making sites that is free, and they created surveys to use with the class and people they know. They are tasked with finding the mean, median, range and mode of the data they collect, as well as making a graph and writing a quick explanation for their data. A rubric was provided for assessing this application of math knowledge. They received time today for working, and tomorrow we will continue, as it may take until Friday to finish.

Finally we did some great running and a game of California Kickball during PE. One of the things we are really working on is cooperative play and learning how to be competitive without being negative or argumentative toward others. We reviewed the rules together carefully, and Ms. D had to play referee closely during the game. It seemed people were enjoying the game and we may continue it on Monday in the gym.

I look forward to continuing the conversation tomorrow! If any of your children ask you to do their survey, I hope you will oblige them, as it will give them more results to tally later for their project. Many thanks for your support! And thank you to the students and Ryan’s Dad for helping me lug things into the classroom this morning, as I am beginning to collect many supplies for this unit!

Have a great night!