The marshmallow activity involved building towers with mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. Before beginning, we talked about the design process and how real-world engineers begin  by planning and designing. We also brainstormed what might make for a good tower (strong base) and different shapes we might make (with triangles being one of the strongest structures).

Both designing and working in groups while building proved to be good learning processes for students. While some groups followed their designs relatively closely, one student proclaimed “This doesn’t look anything like what we drew!”

The digital photo challenge is always a favorite, and this group took some amazing photos.

In the afternoon, grade 3-5 students made Rube Goldberg-style contraptions incorporating simple machines.

Again, we emphasized the design process with planning, building, and iterating. Students began by working in small groups to design what they planned to build by drawing it.

Working on a design challenge in a group was also a learning experience for these students. Figuring out which person would do which task and how the different parts would fit together were real word tasks which will benefit these students later on. Some groups worked well together, while others didn’t.

In the building phase, students were given a set of materials which included a piece of posterboard, Play Doh, tongue depressors, popsicle sticks, dominoes, marbles, a bell, paper cups, cardboard tubes, cardboard, string, pipe cleaners,tape, and glue. With these materials, they were to build a chain reaction style contraption (think Mouse Trap) that incorporated simple machines, such as inclined planes, pulleys, levers, and  wheels.

The chain reactions were to start with the drop of a marble with the end goal of ringing a bell. Students could not touch anything in between, and the goal was to have at least five steps in the process.

About midway through the process, students were given the opportunity to present their work and to reflect on what they were most proud of, what their biggest challenge was, and what work they still needed to do. Other students gave input and suggestions.

Some of my take-aways from the day:

• Children, even very young ones, are incredibly capable.
• Working with a group of 15 students was much more productive (for them and for us) than with all 30. (For the morning group, a limited number of cameras prompted us to divide into two groups and switch between that and making cards.)
• If I did the contraption activity again, I might rethink it a little and/or provide more examples. Students didn’t entirely understand the chain reaction idea and fitting in simple machines (other than the inclined plane) was a little contrived.
• Don’t use Play Doh on carpet (even if students are working on tables).
• I need more work on managing group dynamics. (We had several groups that couldn’t/wouldn’t work together, even though they chose their own groups. For a few, I ended up just letting them regroup or work alone.)
• The random variations of the day can make a big difference.
• Modeling different kinds of activities like these can be valuable professional development for teachers.

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The first two kits, Windowsill Garden/Microgreens and Paper Crafts, have been released.

And the next three kits, Audio Storytelling, Digital Photography and Digital Movie Making, will be released soon.

These kits have been well received, and I’m pleased with the ability to use them without necessarily having attended a workshop. Living in a place where access to services such as workshops or even libraries is limited and working with rural policy and issues of access, this is valuable.

I’m currently thinking about ways that this work could be spread to a larger audience. If you see an application of kits like this in your area, let me know.

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We worked with 30 grade K-2 students in the morning and another 30 grade 3-5 students in the afternoon.

In the morning, we started with the Marshmallow Challenge. No matter how many times I do this, I always have fun and learn new things. This was a young group and had the highest “completion” rate of any group I’ve facilitated yet — 7 of 8 groups had a tower standing at the end. One of my favorite parts was when we debriefed afterward, and I shared the fact that kids usually do better at this than well-educated adults. When I asked the kids why they thought this might be, one supposed it was because adults had larger hands that made it more difficult.

After this, we had the kids make puppets and do puppet shows as a storytelling exercise. I was a little worried about this activity, because I thought the kids might be too shy to do it. I was completely wrong — the kids jumped right in and were amazing. We provided very little structure or suggestions, which worked well. Kids worked with what they were comfortable with. Some used supplied images to make their puppets; others drew their own pictures. They self grouped and were eager to do puppet shows. I had allotted an hour for this, and we could have gone twice that long.

The last morning activity was to make books. We started with pre-folded booklets made with these instructions. (I had wondered if this size might be too small for lower elementary, but they were just fine.) Then the kids wrote their books. Some students chose to use mainly pictures, while others included words. After their books were done, covers were attached, and students decorated those as well. Again, students were excited about this activity and worked well with little direction.

In the afternoon with the older students, we did a game jam (the second one I’ve done). This time we started with a discussion of what the students favorite games were and then moved on to talk about what makes a game (space, components, mechanics, constraints, a goal, and FUN).

The students were asked to form teams and make their own games using the following supplied materials:

• Poster board
• 2 dice
• 2 golf balls
• 2 cups
• Misc pieces
• Misc cards

Other art supplies were also available. They were also given this handout to complete.

They jumped right into it and made some pretty amazing games. Highlights were a game that used cards based on math problems and some very thoughtful work of thinking through and writing down rules and other guidelines. And it’s always a thrill to me when kids ask if they can take their work home and then are so excited to do so!

After they made their games, we had each group show their game to the rest of the classes and then give feedback using the following prompts:

• I like…
• I wonder…
• I might suggest…

The students were really thoughtful about this, and it worked very well. We actually had to rush it a little because of time constraints. There was a little time for students to play each other’s games, but not enough time to iterate. This was discussed though as a part feedback. In the future, I might give less time to game design and creation and more time to critique and iteration.

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We had kids from ages 2 to 80 participate. (A couple adults said that building planes seemed like more fun that listening to lectures in the adult portion of the program.

We started the day with building paper airplanes. Most kids started with designs they were already familiar with and then drifted into the books and printouts that we’d laid around the tables for more exotic designs. After making their planes, we went outside for flight tests, which led to testing, redesign, iteration, and more testing. We had contests for the longest distance flight, the longest time in the air, the smallest plane, and the most visually attractive.

After that, we went on to make balsa wood gliders. This was a favorite activity of many of when we were young, and the kids really loved it.

After that, we shifted gears to build marble mazes. The kids really liked last year’s cardboard challenge, and this was a variation on that. I had deliberated beforehand whether to make this a contest of sorts, but ultimately left it more open-ended.

The kids wanted to form their own groups to do this and surprised us by dividing into just two groups — boys and girls. It was interesting to watch how the two groups worked with the boys ultimately splintering into several groups (and a few working by themselves) and the girls really bonding as a team and coming up with something quite complicated. Several of the kids were so absorbed in the work that they went right through lunch.

After lunch came the favorite activity of the day — stomp rockets. These were built with 2-liter pop bottles, a length of bicycle tubing, a piece of PVC tubing, and a paper rocket. One of the highlights was when a couple girls launched their rocket, not once but twice, onto the roof of the building. It was also a revelation that stomping harder wasn’t necessarily better after a couple adults stomped so hard that they broke the bottles.

The day ended with a kid-suggested cooking activity. We made chocolate and caramel sauces and dipped fruit in them. (With the addition of this and a surprise visit from Smokey the Bear, we dropped the planned activities of hovercrafts, which were underwhelming in our pre-event testing, and kites, which we’ll save for another day.)

I’m already thinking about what we’ll do next year. Textiles? Cooking? Painting? There are so many choices.

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