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Newspaper Table Challenge

After yesterday's successful day of building, we challenged the students to see how many books their table would hold. I reviewed the concepts of trusses and load distribution, using pictures of bridges and their tables. The review of these concepts prompted one student to ask, "Why suspension bridges are longer than truss bridges?" My response was that would be a great question to research and share the answer with the whole group.
The students eagerly took on the challenge of reinforcing their designs to hold more books. I was also happy to see students who had passed on building yesterday decide to join in the design process today. It definitely looked like chaos at times but there was an amazing energy in the room.

Winning design held 22 textbooks!
Our next step tomorrow is to write about the design process. I hope the level of engagement carries over into their writing.
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  1. anagermarquezJuly 10, 2014 at 10:15 AM

    Wow! Impressive! Good job on creativity :) You can tell by the pictures that the kids are really enjoying your classes and ideas.

    ReplyDelete

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