The Next Generation Science Standards place an emphasis on allowing children to design and create on their own, rather than having a teacher tell them step-by-step how to create something:
We began by reading a story about monsters who need to get to a party. They have no means of transportation and it is too far to walk. How will we solve their problem? Build a car! Challenge: can you build a wind-propelled car using just 4 items? I know my students can do it & I can't wait to see their final creations!
I displayed slides of cars and wind-catchers to facilitate a discussion on aerodynamic design & wind propulsion. Sketches were made and we are now in the prototype building stage. I love seeing how enthusiastic the children are about this! I'll post photos of the final products soon!
After created the cars, all students tested and tweaked their prototypes. We measured the time it took to travel the distance of 2 meters and we charted and graphed our data. Here are the awesome creations!
