Sunday, December 18, 2011

Roller Coaster Designers

Between all of our holiday fun this week, we were still hard at work learning. We capped off our study of Force and Motion with a really fun project. The kids actually built roller coasters out of pipe insulation right in the classroom. This was a fun and brain-stretching challenge as the kids struggled to solve problems. When their marble was going to slowly or not making around the loops, they had to figure out a way to decrease the friction or increase the potential energy. When the marble flew off course, they had to find a way to overcome the inertia. This was a blast!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday we made gingerbread houses. Rather than using a milk carton as a skeleton, I decided to experiment with doing it without the milk carton - with mixed results.









































































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