Lewis and Clark Learns

I love how MaKey MaKey requires my students to seriously problem-solve issues.  We start by learning about circuits, conductive materials, and just what a MaKey MaKey is.  Following a few days of learning, we embark on a few challenges using different conductive materials and the piano app from the MaKey MaKey website.  So much collaboration is needed in our groups to be successful.  Of course, we have some problems working together so we stop, talk, and model how to work together when necessary.  

Working our way through the Design Thinking LAUNCH Cycle to build Rube Goldberg Machines. L ook, Listen, and Learn: Read about the man and the machines.  Watch many, many examples.  A sk Questions:   Ask and answer questions through the inquiry process U nderstand:  Looking at our Rube Goldberg guidelines, requirements, and task. N avigate Ideas:   Begin planning and designing our machines. C reate a Prototype:   Begin constructing based on our ideas. H ighlight and Fix: Fix what is not working. Launch To The World! Rube Goldberg:  A complicated a machine that  completes a simple task.   The photos below show my students in the Navigating stage of the LAUNCH Cycle.  Each group plans a little differently.  Some got right to work drawing and sketching ideas, others started listing step-by-step descriptions of what would happen in their machine, some simply talked things out and had nothing on their paper, o...

Mission:  Using the supplies provided, build a contraption to help the Little Red Hen carry flour. Supplies:  TinkerToys, Yarn, Bucket, 5 lb Bag of Flour Focus:  Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Fun