Moving on, this lesson was centered through the district’s calendar of Inquiry Mondays. Students partake in activities and lessons given by the district with a specific topic in place. These Inquiry Mondays for the remainder of the year focus on engineering. This Monday’s lesson was on civil engineering to be specific. Side note: Due to the lesson plan being a district lesson plan, I am unable to provide the exact document. However, I can walk you throughout the process of what the lesson entailed.
Before I start the lesson reflection, I have to mention one more thing: At the close of my Fall 2013 semester in science, I made future goals for myself as a science instructor. Those two goals were:
- To keep the purpose of the lesson present throughout
- Have authentic, genuine, and purposeful planning/plans
I put a lot of effort into keeping the purpose of the lesson present throughout. I remember even asking the class, “What is the whole reason why we are building the bridge?” A student answered to get the billy goats to the other side. I probed and asked, “Why would they want to do that?” Students then recalled that there was something that the goats wanted – the sweet grass! (After gathering their materials for the day, I was pleased to see that one group labeled their river with the ‘Sweet Grass’ side!) But I have to admit, even I thought the purpose of the sweet grass was silly. Sweet grass? That wasn’t my purpose in presenting the lesson as a teacher. My purpose was to give the students hands-on materials, a real-world activity which civil engineers actually engage in, and challenge them to mimic the behaviors which scientists participate in when they problem solve – making modifications.
From the modifications aspect, I really wanted my students to reflect on their modifications to their bridges. I wanted them to look deeper into why something didn’t work rather than the simple fact that it didn’t. The lesson plan provided suggested that there be a break in between the modifications and the initial build. There was something about that aspect that I wasn’t crazy about. I understood that making modifications needs to be explicitly taught but I didn’t want to rush through the initial build and cut off modification time to talk about it. I wanted the modifications of the bridges to happen throughout – like real civil engineers do.
While the lesson was only intended for 45 minutes, my content coach, collaborating teacher and I all agreed that this was too good of an opportunity to cut short. We continued the lesson the following day, discussing in detail what modifications are and how some/most of the groups made modifications throughout yesterday without knowing it. (The students were required to brainstorm a blueprint, they were asked to stick to their blueprint plan yesterday.) I used a specific groups as an example, putting their blueprint under the ELMO for the class to see. They broke their stick of modeling clay in half and set the index card on top of the two broken pieces standing up perpendicular to their table. When the group actually went in to build, they quickly realized a few things. The single index card was weak but they were given three so they used all of them stacked together as their flat part of the bridge. They also found that when 50 grams of weight is applied, the index cards fell off the sides. To fix that, they stuck the index cards slightly under the tops of the clay, making a shelf. This secured their index cards and gave enough stability to hold not only 50 grams but 127 grams of weight on their sturdy bridge. Genius! Kiss your brain!
Some things I definitely learned from presenting this lesson was that even if I am handed a lesson versus making it on my own, I must still keep in mind a purposeful purpose. Was getting to the sweet grass really the point? No, but I could have made the civil engineering aspect have a much heavier importance to the kids. Another realization I had was the power in preparation. There were a LOT of materials in this project. Many of the materials were not central to my classroom. I had to go home to get some things, make several trips to the science lab to borrow clay and other items, and search my CT’s classroom for construction paper, file folders, and paper plates. Once those materials were located, printing was another challenge. I had to prepare enough for not only my homeroom, but the second science class that would also be completing the activity. The booklets for the tall tale were tricky in placing the right order and using the paper cutter to make exact cuts…. See where I’m going with this? The good news is that I had no complications with materials missing. Everything was accounted for and extras were made in case of emergencies. A management aspect I was grateful for was the predetermined placement of roles for each team member in the groups. There was the lead scientist, communications scientist, recording scientist, and the materials scientist. All of which had a significant role in this particular activity. While I did run into some complications with students not wanting to be their job, the group stepped up to compensate. I learned that choosing my battles when it comes to management, a lot more learning can be done. This was minor and could be resolved quickly - moving along was the best chose. Eventually, the student voluntarily wanted his job back once I did not entertain his refusal to participate. I was extremely pleased in the good frustrations students had with each other. If anything, this was a great learning experience on a scientific level as well as a real-world level. Working together and depending on others to have a common goal accomplished is a new concept to many of my third graders. I await next Monday’s inquiry with another engineer focus. By day two, the kids were asking when they could perfect their bridges again!