3D Pens

 

Just look at the detail these 6th Graders accomplished with their 3D Pens, AWESOME job students!

Tin-Boat Challenge

 This is probably my favorite challenge  all year long.  Watching these 4th graders learn about buoyancy and then try to duplicate it with a piece of aluminum foil is fun to watch.  The goal of this challenge is for the students to design a boat with a square foot of aluminum foil and six straws.  No tape or connecting products at all can be used.  Then the boat must float 250 pennies.  
Students add pennies to their boats slowly to see if they can make the goal.  All student show growth in their designs, and most complete the goal, some reached over 400 pennies!  A sketch drawing is made first, then they start the building, testing, recreating process know as the Scientific Method.  It is very satisfying to watch these kids learn all about their designs and improve on their thoughts.

Create a flagpole

 This sounds like an easy task, it is just a pole, however the 4th graders that were given this task found out it was harder

than they thought.  Using K'nex engineering kits the kids were tasked to make an operational flagpole to raise the flag.  A proper working pulley system along with a story pole and base were all needed for this project to work.  Again, it seems easy, however many failures turned into two great projects.  Way to stick with it and battle through the obstacles girls!

Paper Bridges

 The look on their faces when the "Paper Bridge Challenge" was given to them was priceless.  250 pieces of paper and tape were the only materials they could use for this challenge.  The goal was to have the bridge hold 80 pounds.  It also had to have real-life attributes to let cars pass above the bridge as well as under the bridge. The minds of the third graders involved with this challenge was very fun to observe.  Every bridge looked very different, and every bridge held at least 50 pounds, some even held over 100 pounds!