Inventions and Engineering!

Okay, I finally have time to breathe and catch up on writing a respectable post.  It’s snow day #8!  So, I thought, “Hmmm… I suppose I can sit down and write something worthwhile instead of my little two sentence wonders.”  Prepare yourself.  This is a long one!

We teach out of four different science kits in third grade.  One of units we teach is by Engineering is Elementary, and it’s called Marvelous Machines.  It’s essentially a unit about industrial engineering and how simple machines make work easier.  It’s easily my favorite unit!  The reason?  It comes with a nice supplemental book called “Aisha Makes Work Easier”, and there’s plenty of room for supplementals (unlike the other three kits).  I also love it, because it’s so relevant for our students and embraces the 21st century!  Of course, it’s also F-U-N! Of course, I am super excited because the timing is perfect for my leprechaun trap activity and spud racing activity from my St. Patty’s Day unit.  (Aisha actually tours a potato chip factory in the book, and for the spud race, the potatoes roll down a ramp… an inclined plane!) I can’t wait to post pictures next week!  Of course, I am concurrently using my Inventors unit from TpT too! Read on to find out what we’ve been up to!  I forgot to charge my camera this week, so I don’t have as many photos as I’d like.  I’ll take plenty of photos next week!  I promise!

One of the fun things we’ve done as a class is a project called Gadget Works.  I wasn’t able to do it this year, because we have a much tighter budget, but it’s so fun!  It’s ran out of COSI Columbus, our state science center.  It’s a video-conference with “Professor Gadgeteer”, so you may be able to do it, even if you aren’t in Ohio.  Check out the link for more details, but basically the premise is that students use their knowledge of simple machines to make predictions about how the “Happy Crab” works.  They then test their hypothesis by dismantling the crab with a little screwdriver, then eventually putting it back together.  They also do a similar thing with a set of “Chattering Teeth”.  They also spend some time identifying how Professor Gadgeteer’s invention works.  It’s really fun, and you get to keep your Happy Crabs and materials, which is awesome, because I can modify the experience to do with my students on a smaller scale.  I am so excited too, because I just found a website where I can actually purchase extra “Happy Crabs”, just in case they are suddenly unhappy or broken. I also found a place where you can purchase Chattering Teeth, although you may be able to find those other places for less.  Maybe They’re really reasonably priced too!  Score!  The crab would be really great to reinforce a motion unit too!  (We teach that before we teach engineering.)  Seriously, how cute is this little guy!  Just look at that cute little “Happy Crab!”

I love to use the book Mistakes That Worked during this unit!  It’s a really great way to show kids that inventions aren’t always intentional, but also that it’s okay to make mistakes.  Another fun book is So You Want to Be an Inventor?  I don’t necessarily recommend either as a read aloud, but they are great to pull excerpts from and get dialogue going.  I leave both books out throughout the duration of this unit for curious students… and they LOVE it. 

Last year, I stumbled upon Edheads.  I am totally in love with their Simple Machines and Compound Machines activities.  A quirky little robot sends the students on interactive scavenger hunts to find simple machines.  After going on our virtual hunt, we grab clipboards and go on a scavenger hunt around our gigantic building.  (As a side-note, it’s so exciting when a kid can look at the room divider in the cafeteria and say, “Look it’s a pulley!” before another student says, “Yes, and it divides the room into 1/2.  It’s a fraction!  Can you tell what we’re working on? Yay!)

Another really fabulous website is BKFK (By Kids For Kids).  I was bequeathed a neat little kid invention, “Crayon Holders”, three years ago.  It was created by an 11 year-old inventor, and the back of the package gives a nice little blurb about her.  It also shows kids that inventions exist because someone worked to solve a problem.  In Cassidy’s case, she worked to create a solution for broken crayons that were too small to color with.  It’s really inspiring to kids!  You can find lots of information on the website, sign up for contests, and browse lots of kid inventions!

Some other fun activities we do (and will be doing next week) include: making cootie catchers to learn about the assembly line,  using index cards to create weight-bearing structures, our Whatchamacallit Workshop/ Leprechaun Trap Activity, among other things.  I will make sure to document our activities as we do them to share with all of you!  In the meantime, feel free to use this free printable to teach your students about the Engineering Design Process.  I trimmed around the funky frame from Lettering Delights and laminated it!  Enjoy!  (By the way, sometime this weekend, I’ll sit down and answer the questions from my Q&A!)

Oh, and as an after-thought, if anyone is interested, I just posted a 25 page Super Sleuths Mystery genre unit to TpT.  It’s definitely influenced by Beth Newingham’s fabulous unit Reading Detectives, because I use several of her forms when I teach this genre.  I have found, over the years, that I wanted to bulk it up, so I created lots of extensions to complement what I already use.   I’ve included my case files in the download, because I have a preference for cutesy clip art.  I have also created several extension printables, vocabulary cards, mystery story element posters (similar to my Fiction File), and some additional goodies.  Check out the preview on TpT if you want to get a sneak peak of the full file.