This week in class students were faced with an index card tower building task as part of our engineering standards. Students used and followed the scientific method as they began this challenge. To being with students were introduced to the purpose of the task. Students purpose was to build a two-foot tower out of only index cards, scissors, and 12 inches of tape. Each tower then needed to be able to hold and support a small stuffed animal.
As a class we viewed two different Brainpop videos on the basic components of building towers. This provided students with background knowledge and a little research on how to build towers. Students then were placed into small groups and came up with a plan for building their tower. Student then created a hypothesis on how they thought they should design their tower. Once they had their hypothesis they began experimenting and testing their plan.
Tuesday, students had the opportunity to create their tower using only the 100 index cards, scissors, and 12 inches of tape. Students had to think flexibility and work together as they began building. Students also learned through failure and trial and error. The students had a great time learning how to work together to build their tower!
Today students will analyze their observations and answer guided questions that will have them reflect on the scientific process and what they learned about the construction of towers. Students will also draw conclusions about why the towers were unsuccessful and and successful!
Our Third Grade Thinkers! 