1. Job offer!
Following our paleontology unit, we are going to slide right into a little archeology. The 2nd graders were sent a letter asking for their help. A petroglyph has recently been found and museums all over the world are excited about it and very interested in displaying it. The problem is that there is only one original copy of the artifact. Not to fear, however; this is a common occurrence which is often solved by making replicas of an artifact. The 2nd graders have been challenged to learn more about a variety of materials to decide which material would be best to use to carve a copy of the petroglyph into.
Criteria for the challenge:
First, the STEMmers observed each of the materials. The material choices are wax, granite, foam, limestone, pumice, alabaster, and marble.
Then, they needed to find out how well the materials could be carved into. A material that is too hard or too soft would not be a good choice. They completed the hardness test by using a carving tool to carve three lines into each of the material samples.
2. Moving along
We started our lesson today by using our petroglyph to focus on the "M" in STEM - math! The 2nd graders discussed what type of math geometry is and we learned the terms point, line, plane shapes, solid shapes, and polygons. The STEMmers thought of as many polygons as they could, then we went back to our petroglyph to spot all of the geometric figures we could find.
Now, using the information they've learned the STEMmers are ready to begin the Engineering Design Process. To begin, each individual 2nd grader independently imagined the material he or she thought would be best to use for the replica, how many times the lines should be carved into it and why he or she thought this was a good choice. After each student had a chance to come up with his or her own thoughts, each person shared with their group.
After this, each team compromised to come up with a plan for replicating the artifact by choosing one material and how many times they would carve into it. To wrap up this lesson, each team chose a team name that reflected the theme of the challenge. They came up with some very creative ideas! I can't wait to see how the replicas turn out next week :)