They were at first engaged by this big block, which they lifted up onto another.
Krista asked "I wonder why you're doing that?"
"To make the cars go fast!" one replied.
"I wonder if you could change the ramp to make them even faster?"
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| "To go faster you have to go fast and let go." "I put the end on the shelf to make the car go fast." |
To test this hypothesis, the boys experimented with different angles, using the shelf to add height. They found that eventually, the ramp became too steep and it just led to crashes. Even putting a blue block at the end couldn't prevent this from happening. They reflected that the third shelf was too high. Our next step will be to use longer pieces of wood to see if that makes a difference.
From there, the boys experiemented and tested double ramps, going both up and down, and with double level ramps. "It's like a waterfall!"
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| "I wonder if the cars could jump!" |
A few days later, we borrowed some marble tracks from another class and the ramp inquiry took on a new angle. The marbles we highly engaging, and despite only having a few the children did well at sharing them.
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| " I wonder why it keeps falling off right there?" "I fix it!" (adjusts alignment). "See, it's magic!" |
Some children built marble ramps through other blocks...
...and discovered how to make the marble curve around a corner.
Problems were identified and fixed. Experiments were tested and refined.
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| "Why did it fall off right there?" "There's a big hole. Let's fix it! Maybe we can put a little piece of paper to fill up the spot?" |
Stay tuned for more scientists at work in the construction centre!
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