kennedySTEM5: Puffing Along Through September

It has been a busy couple of weeks in grade 5 at the Kennedy School!
We are settling in, learning routines, and developing skills to work in collaborative groups.

Collaborative Groups

Figuring out how to work in collaborative groups is a cornerstone of our science exploration this year. Working together can be a challenging endeavor. Collaborative groups are created for different tasks and roles are assigned to each student. This helps in the delegation of jobs and helps students take ownership of responsibilities.
Commonly used roles in the classroom:
Getters: pick up materials from the materials station and return items at the end of the exploration
Starters: initiate tasks and make sure that all students are participating
Reporters: record information for the group and prepare to share their findings with the class.

To help us understand how important nonverbal and verbal communication skills are to a group, we dove right in to working together with a task called "Stack it Up!" Working in teams of four, students gathered the following materials: one rubber band, four strings, 6 solo cups. The strings were tied to the rubber band and using this as their only tool, students had to pick up and stack the cups! Where does the nonverbal communication work come in? For the first few minutes of the task, students had to rely on eye contact, body language and facial expressions to get the job done! No talking allowed for this portion! Not surprisingly, students were able to excel at the task during this first session. Once allowed to talk, some students found the task more difficult as listening to all ideas in a group and deciding on the route to take becomes a more emotional experience!

As you can see here, students were proud of their efforts!!

Engineering and Design Process:
Not only do we study the scientific method this year, but we spend a lot of time going through the steps of the Engineering and Design Process.
The hardest part? Knowing when to REDESIGN a prototype and knowing when to STOP tinkering with a design that works!

Our first go-round with this task was to build a "Puff Mobile."
Materials: four lifesavers, three straws, tape, two paperclips and one piece of 8x11" paper.
Directions: brainstorm ideas of how to build a mobile that will move using air. Decide on an idea and start to build it.
Here is where the skills of collaborative group work are most necessary and proved to be challenging for us in the beginning. After a day of trying to sort out ideas and start building without success, we stepped back from our work and reviewed two essential skills: listening and communicating clearly. We talked a lot about how important it is to listen to all ideas being shared, how you can combined ideas from two people to create a better idea, and how to make a decision and start working. Once we stepped back and assessed our work, we were able to move forward and had great success!

Make a plan: