Engineering (Making a Tower)

• Focus Question:

How could you build a tower?
If we have marsh-mellows and noodles how can we make the tallest tower?

• Hypothesis/Prediction:

If we make the marsh mellows as the base and noodles as the beams we could make a tall tower.

• Planning:

-Ask the students questions about towers to make connections to prior knowledge. -Show pictures of different towers and ask the students how towers are made. -Ask the students how we could make a tower from marsh-mellows and noodles. -The students are told to work with their group to make the biggest tower they can with the materials provided.

• Data/Diagram/Graph:

# Of Marsh-mellows	# Of Stripes	What Happened
Made it stick like glue	Beams	Pasta stayed together
We used 16 Marsh-mellows	Supports	It helped it stand tall
More marsh-mellows acted like more support	Used 38 pieces of spaghetti noodles

• Claims and Evidence:

The more support you have at the bottom and building on to each level helps the structure stand erect. The majority of the marsh-mellows should be at the bottom because the weight would be too much on top.

• Conclusion:

Having a model of what is to be built first will help the process in building the real thing. Trail and error  happens when building a model to figure out the best options and resources for the building process.

• Reflections:

How can we strengthen our base if we had more time?

Using Our Senses As A Scientist

• Focus Question: How do scientist learn about the world around us?

• Hypothesis/Prediction: (Make a prediction using your senses to figure out what is in the bag. If we use our senses then we will be able to predict about the objects in the bag.) We predicted using our sense of sound that there was money by hearing a clicking sound. Feeling the bag our group predicted a straw, foam brush, and a marble. 

• Planning: -Discuss our senses with the students. (Make sure to tell the students that scientists do not use the sense of taste because a lot of times it is not safe to taste things.) -Talk to the students about the senses they think scientist use to discover the world around us. - Have a paper bag for each group with the same items and the same amount of items in each bag. -Hold up the bag and ask the students what senses could they use to figure out the items in the bag. -Shake and feel the bag to model what the students should do. Also remind the students to take turns passing it the person on their right. -Ask the students to write down the items that they predicted as a group and  encourage them to describe the items with their senses and not just say what they think is in the bag. Example: I heard something clinking and felt something round...I think there is a penny in the bag. -Give the students time to discuss while you (the teacher) is walking around to each group making sure they are focusing our their senses. - Have the students come together as a group and discuss what everyones predictions where and the senses that were used. 

• Data/Diagrams/Graphs: 

  Observations	Senses	Prediction	Objects
  Soft	Touch: Feeling	Straw	✓
  Smooth	Hearing: Ears	Marble	✓
  Sharp		Foam Brush	✓
  Clicking		Coins	✓
  Jingling		Paper Clip	✓

• Claims and Evidence: We found out that the sense of smell and seeing did not help in the process of figuring out what items were inside the paper bag. 

• Conclusion: Our senses help us make accurate decisions as scientists. 

• Reflection: How could you look closely at using your senses tonight when you go home? Talk to your peer and think about what that something might be.