Drinking Straw Marble Maze

Here’s a lesson I planned with my first grade students:

Makerspace Lesson: Drinking Straw Maze

Grade Level:  1^st grade

Essential Question:  How many different ways can I solve a problem?

Lesson Objective:  Students will use tools and materials in order to collaboratively design, build, and improve a marble maze.  Students will work collaboratively to complete this task.

Class period:  45 minutes

 

1. Introduction to lesson:  The students will be told about their makerspace challenge:

Your challenge:  You will work with a partner or small group to create a marble maze.  This will be a great game to play on a rainy day, or during the next indoor recess.

 

Your materials: 

• 1 cardboard box
• Popsicle Sticks
• Scissors
• Tape
• Hot glue (teacher will help with this)

 

Directions:

1. Discuss your ideas with your group.
2. Draw your ideas and make a plan. (use planning sheet)
3. Label your drawing, list materials you will use
4. Show plan to teacher for approval
5. Create your marble maze.
6. Test your maze with a marble!
7. Make changes, as needed.
8. Share with the class.

 

 

2. Make a plan. Students will use the planning sheet to plan their ideas with their group.  They will draw, write, and label their ideas.  They will also make a list of materials needed for their plan. They will use this plan as a prototype to help them get started. (They will also be shown some various pictures of student work for ideas.)

 

3. Explore/Make: Students will spend the majority of the lesson creating, testing, and modifying their straw marble mazes.

 

4. Reflection: At the end of the lesson, students will refer to their plans from the beginning of the class. Students will reflect and share how their plan and thought process changed and evolved as they completed the maker challenge.

 

5. Share: Students will share their straw maze creations with the class. They will test the maze out and show their classmates. They will share their new knowledge with the class.

 

6. Extension: Students can use upcoming indoor recess lessons to make updates, changes, improvements to their mazes. They can also use this time to play with their mazes and swap mazes with others.
   

   

   

 

Genius Hour- Social Movement- Grade 5

For this week’s Genius Hour, we gave the students some topics as starting points. We tried to guide them with some topics from a recent unit in school, so they could come up with their own research questions. Many stuck with Social Movement topics:  Civil Rights, Women’s Suffrage, and Immigration.

Some came up with their own. And, some went in a different direction and researched what they were passionate about.  We had everything from Suffragettes, to Penguins, to the Gulf War, and many topics in between. But you know what?  They were interested, engaged, and truly passionate about learning something new.

They spent the majority of the class period doing research and recording their new knowledge.   They only just got started on their “hands-on” part of the research, but the beginning stages are looking great!

Making a “MakerConnection”to Gr 2 Health Curriculum

Two second grade teachers and I sat down to co-plan an upcoming health lesson. The unit that they have just begun in Health is all about personal health—keeping healthy, preventing germs, making good choices, etc. We chose to take a lesson about germs and the importance of washing hands and make it a little more hands-on, so we could bring it to the Maker Lab!

We started the lesson talking about as a kid how it seems like a “pain” to have to wash hands all the time. They all agreed that washing hands is sometimes a pain. We continued the discussion about the importance of it and how it prevents sicknesses from spreading.  The discussion continued for a few minutes.  Next, I had the students go to a sink and wet their hands.  Then they went to a paper plate full of glitter and dipped their hands in the glitter. The glitter represented the germs from sneezing or coughing. While each student dipped their hands in the glitter germs. The other students were to try to keep their hands in the air and “not spread the germs”. But, guess what??!  Just as I thought would happen, the glitter was everywhere and a good visual for the students. They were so surprised how quickly the glitter spread.  (Here’s a link to some resources I found to get this idea:  https://www.columbus.gov/uploadedfiles/Public_Health/Content_Editors/Resources_For/Educators/Teaching%20young%20children%20handwashing.pdf)

The next part of the lesson, I split the class into three groups. One group went to wash hands at the sink with soap and water. Another group used only water, while the last group just wiped their hands on their pants.  This was another great visual and many great discussions started.  The children were so amazed what a difference the soap made!

After everyone had a chance to wash with soap and water, we gathered together and chatted about our observations. Then, the students washed a short video clip, called “The Sneeze”. This was another great example of how quickly germs spread and students were again surprised.  (I am hoping that they will want to wash their hands even more after today’s activities) Here’s the youtube link to the video clip:

 

Then, I had the students go back to their seats to design their own germ. They sketched a germ and named it.  I created a writing component to the “maker” part of the lesson. The students came up with 3 sentences with 3 details about what their germ could do. After their planning of the germ, they used some “maker materials” to make their germ come to life!

I think this lesson went really well. They got a lot out of it and made some real-world connections. Using glitter as germs was definitely “eye-opening” for these students. Now, I just need a vacuum!  This lab is covered in glitter!