what more information and materials they need. A card game called “Junkyard Treasures” triggered a lot of creative thinking. Unfortunately, it appears to be out of print. It was essentially a collection of line drawings of many items—rakes, gar- den hoses, combs, pieces of tubing—for students to mix and match with the view of how they could be combined to make imaginary devices. I showed some video clips from an MIT engineering contest, and reviewed the basic concepts of simple machines. MIT has some brief videos of their robotics contests available on the Internet, and others can easily be found searching on “engineering contest videos.” Teachers will, of course, wish to preview their selections. We then talked about the devices people used between 1870–1920 and

researched to find out which devices could be replicated with our materials in a classroom. That ruled out full-size locomotives and weaponry. Once each team had chosen a device they would replicate, they wrote up a “supplies list” because there were always extra things needed—a salt container for the body of a locomotive, heavy washers to balance a riverboat, and toothpicks and toilet paper rolls to form the toothed cylinders needed for a cotton gin. Our basic structures, though, began with an idea about human needs and historical knowledge, fleshed out using bass- wood frames that were glued together. One problem I learned early on was that most kids that age couldn’t visualize a

workable design and draw it in a useful way. They still need a concrete shape even before they can draw their plan. So we made prototypes with LEGO®

bricks from

my own kids’ collection. Once the students had a prototype that would function, they drew three elevations of their plan for it on the graph paper—front, side, and either top or bottom. They used a 12"  18". laminated sheet of 1 cm graph paper and washable markers. The drawings were full scale, 1:1, simplifying the transfer to cutting the wood and assembly.

Reading, Writing

Building days alternated with reading, discussion, and paperwork days. This satis- fied the written curriculum for the district. Teams kept journals as they researched and built. On several occasions, teams changed their planned project based on what they’d read and new information they had found from Internet research. The use of historical fiction and trade books was a big motivator, and research shows that memory is greatly enhanced by following a narrative. The Dear America Series by Scholastic had a number of stories, and non-fiction like The Way Things Work and Kids at Work were filled with intriguing and useful information.

Journal 3-1-2001

Today we made the axle for our paddle wheel and attached the hinges to the motor house. Our problem was that the holes where the axle went through were too small. Mrs. Rubino took an electric drill and made the holes bigger.

Internet Research

WebQuest was a new idea at that time and the concept seemed made-to-order. I put one together with what seemed relevant to our particular unit and age group. This helped guide the research, which could otherwise have gone astray.

MATERIALS LIST

1. 1 cm by ½ cm wood 2. 1 cm by 1 cm wood 3. Blue corrugated plastic 4. 24 cardboard stabilizers 5. Motor 6. Bushing 7. Battery holder 8. Switch 9. Wires

10. Rubber band 11. Wheel

Our basic structures began

with an idea about human needs and historical knowledge.

©SYNERGY LEARNING • 800-769-6199 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

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