I've mentioned before that I teach an elective to 4th
and 5th graders entitled “Digital Design Process.” It’s a remarkably
fun class to teach, as I never know that I’m going to get from my students because
creatively is uniquely wonderful and individual like that. In addition to
talking to them about innovation, I’ve taught them how to be innovative with
tools such as Buncee, Canva, Padlet, and more… and then we capture them in our
digital portfolios with Seesaw—which adds a nice paper-free, environmental
layer to the class. Additionally, we
also do some no-tech or low-tech STEM/Design challenges like “Trying to ReasonWith Hurricane Season.”
With Halloween around the corner, it seemed like the perfect
time for another Design Challenge—this time regarding “The Great Pumpkin.”
While I’m a major fan and grew up on “The Peanuts” cartoon strip by Charles
Schwartz, the name stuck, but the direction of the cartoon didn’t fit with
where my gears were turning.
But I was struck by a book I read lifetimes ago when I was teaching Kindergarten: “The Biggest Pumpkin Ever” by Steven Kroll. This delightful story has two little mice inadvertently giving the same pumpkin extra love, attention, and nutritional power, causing it to grow like gangbusters and be the greatest pumpkin ever. This led them on the need to transport their super-sized pumpkin to the center of town to be shared with their pumpkin-loving peers.
But I was struck by a book I read lifetimes ago when I was teaching Kindergarten: “The Biggest Pumpkin Ever” by Steven Kroll. This delightful story has two little mice inadvertently giving the same pumpkin extra love, attention, and nutritional power, causing it to grow like gangbusters and be the greatest pumpkin ever. This led them on the need to transport their super-sized pumpkin to the center of town to be shared with their pumpkin-loving peers.
So the challenge for students: Create a transport system to
carry a mini pumpkin, where the “you” in this situation is a 2 inch Playmobil character. (As a mom of 2 kids, I had
plenty of these guys.) With odds and
ends Legos (minus any wheels!), a collection of corks and craft sticks, a yard
of string, and some rubber bands--and of course a mini pumpkin-- the stage is
set for my designers to design, my creators to create, my builders to build,
and my engineers to engineer! Their li’l
Playmobil guy (or gal) has to pull the pumpkin across the designated space to
cross the finish line, with students only able to drag their guy (not the transportation
system).
I can’t wait to put them into action this week! I’ll be sure
to share pictures in a future post!
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- Tech With Us Community: Tech or Treat
"Great Pumpkin Challenge" created at Buncee https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/64129aa75e874e13a1710d702559e802; "Biggest Pumpkin Ever" picture from https://www.amazon.com/Biggest-Pumpkin-Ever-Steven-Kroll/dp/0590464639; Spider STEM pic from http://stemactivitiesforkids.com/2017/09/30/halloween-stem-activities-students-will-love/; Great Pumpkin Transport from Lionel trains from https://lionelllc.wordpress.com/tag/halloween/
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