Introducing ....The fourth little pig
Our first lesson in 2nd grade was from our Fairy Tales unit. In this lesson, the students were introduced to the not-so-well-known 4th Little Pig. His brothers had to deal with the Big, Bad Wolf, but now he's on his own to deal with the Big, Bad Wolf's cousin.
The 2nd graders all agreed that they could help out the 4th Little Pig by designing and building a house for the pig that would protect the Little Pig from the wolf's huffing and puffing! In order to do this, the 2nd graders learned the steps to the Engineering Design Process.
First we ASKed what the problem was, then each student worked independently to IMAGINE a design that he or she thought would be effective to protect the pig. After this, the students paired up with a partner to share their thoughts and then collaborate to come up with a PLAN that incorporated parts of each partner's ideas. The next step the 2nd graders took was to use their plan to CREATE their houses. Finally, we were ready to test. Each and every house was so creative and unique, and even better, each house stood up to the wolf's blowing. The 2nd graders did a great job working together to meet the criteria of this challenge.
The 2nd graders all agreed that they could help out the 4th Little Pig by designing and building a house for the pig that would protect the Little Pig from the wolf's huffing and puffing! In order to do this, the 2nd graders learned the steps to the Engineering Design Process.
First we ASKed what the problem was, then each student worked independently to IMAGINE a design that he or she thought would be effective to protect the pig. After this, the students paired up with a partner to share their thoughts and then collaborate to come up with a PLAN that incorporated parts of each partner's ideas. The next step the 2nd graders took was to use their plan to CREATE their houses. Finally, we were ready to test. Each and every house was so creative and unique, and even better, each house stood up to the wolf's blowing. The 2nd graders did a great job working together to meet the criteria of this challenge.
As you can see, their creative juices were flowing! Not only were sturdy houses built, but students thought to add alarms, escape hatches, parachutes, and more! To wrap this lesson up, we focused on the "T" in STEM as we prepared a presentation of our work using the Adobe Voice app. Using this app on the iPads, students were able to describe pictures they'd added to share their house and their favorite features of it. Each group shared their presentation with the class.
The 2nd graders had a BLAST! They learned what engineers do, the 4 C's of group work, the Engineering Design Process, and they saved the day for the 4th Little Pig!
Job well done!
Job well done!