I wonder how teachers include the “E” in this acronym when designing or selecting class activities. And yet, the play that children do can be the foundation for future interest in engineering. This issue has several articles that describe how to capitalize on children’s curiosity and problem-solving abilities with engaging and purposeful activities, from race cars (Gravity Racers) to sand castles (Building with Sand) to learning about rocks (Science Rocks—in SciLinks, use the keyword “rock” for your grade level for more information on types of rocks, identifying rocks, and the rock cycle) and other Imaginative Inventions (which has suggestions for an egg-drop design activity in addition to suggested trade books on the topic).

Elementary Design Challenges focuses on airplanes and flight and has a list of suggestions for other projects. The author uses the resources of NASA’s Engineering Design Challenges website. SciLinks has additional suggestions for websites that have explanations for engineering and design principles in projects such as bridge structures and roller coasters, and for learning from paper airplanes. (Some students may be skeptical when we tell them it’s ok to fly them in class!)

The article Potato Problem Solving illustrates how students used the 5E process to study the thermal insulation properties of materials. Engineering for All is an engaging narrative that describes a windmill design activity that took place in an inclusive classroom. The activity is based on a design process: ask, imagine, plan, create, improve (SciLinks websites have more information on wind energy). As you’re reading the article, be sure to check out articles in the March edition of The Science Teacher, Science for All. Although the articles have a focus on secondary students, the theme is similar and you’ll get some additional insights and ideas for inclusive classrooms.

Children are never too young to explore design solutions. The photographs of the children’s problem-solving strategies with inclined planes in Science and Literacy Centers are priceless! I liked the questions in the “Teacher talk to support inquiry” graphic. And the classes in the article Insect Keepers went beyond the usual activities of an insect unit to incorporate the design process. The author includes checklists to assess student learning, too.

I was traveling through central Texas earlier this month and in the highway rest stops, the buildings were designed with storm shelters for tornadoes.  The students in Hurricane Proof This were looking at the design of buildings to withstand severe conditions  (these students may also be interested in the article Skyscrapers or other design sites such as the Leaning Tower of Pasta).

Check out the list of Connections for this issue. Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, this resource has ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, etc.

I hope that our secondary colleagues will take a look at the amazing things that younger students are learning about and doing. (These activities could certainly be kicked up a notch or two for the upper grades!).

On the playground two sisters collected rocks and set them on a bench where they grouped them by size. When I asked, “What kind of rock is that?” one said, “A triangle” referring to its outer shape. They also had a group based on material— small chunks of concrete were put together because “they have little pieces in them.”

Urban rock collecting is discussed on the Neighborhood Rocks webpage. View the identification pages with your class and ask them if they have seen any of the pictured types of rock before, and where did they see them?

In my east coast urban setting “real” rocks, or rocks naturally in place, are hard to find without excavating. Walking along a creek is one place to find rocks that have been moved there by natural forces, not by humans. Along the Potomac River and its minor tributaries are good places to touch water-worn rocks. (Be sure to wash hands afterwards.) You don’t have to know what type of rock it is, to appreciate that it is smooth and pinkish, or has sparkles, or has holes in it.

Label even the most non-descript rock with the location and date collected, and that single rock becomes the beginning of a scientific rock collection. Maybe a high school earth science teacher would be willing to view the collection and help with scientific names.

In the December 2006 Science and Children, The Early Years column discusses exploring sedimentary rock material with young children with an activity on making pretend rocks. Search the journal archives for “rock” find 22 more articles on teaching about rocks. Young children can experience melting ice, deforming playdough or clay, packing snow or sand into a ball, and the softening of hardened clay in water. In your experience, at what age do they typically understand the Rock Cycle?

Peggy

I’m looking forward to the NSTA Regional Conference in Portland, Oregon, in November,  a cornucopia of a conference so full of interesting presentations that each of my time slots is double (sometimes triple) booked with workshops and fieldtrips. Being over-scheduled assures me that I have an alternative session if one is canceled or looks like it will cover familiar material. Here’s a sample of where I hope to be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday….

Thursday November 20, 12:30–1:30 PM, Family Science Day Session: Starting Them Early: Science Learning in PreK and Early Elementary

Discover innovative resources and best practices designed to lay the foundation for lifelong science learning. Appropriate for educators of pre-K to early elementary school.

Presenters: Anne Gurnee (Southwest Charter School: Portland, OR); Mia Jackson (David Heil & Associates, Inc: Portland, OR)

And then from 2:00-3:00 PM I’ll be presenting a workshop session with Marie Faust Evitt (writer and teacher at Mountain View Parent Nursery School in Mountain View, CA) on

Winter Observations—Birds, Wind, and Melting

Discover hands-on, standards-based preK–2 activities that incorporate observing animal behavior, counting, exploring the nature of materials, and using children’s literature. Work through (and take home) three lessons that include making bird-shape rubbings, playing games with air, and trying to melt chocolate, beeswax, ice, and rock.

Please introduce yourself if you stop by. Mention this blog and I’ll give you extra chocolate!

Friday November 21, 8-9 AM, The Science of Children’s Literature

Browse the many learning centers that WSU preservice teachers have developed using science-themed children’s literature, and try out the hands-on activities.

Presenter: James R. Williamson of Washington State University

Saturday November 22, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM, Fight Bac! Integrating Food Safety into Your Elementary Classroom

Explore the free FDA hands-on curriculum that integrates science and health standards while teaching students about the importance of hand washing and food safety.

Presenters: Laurie A. Hayes (Center for Advanced Research and Technology: Clovis, CA); Susan E. Hartley (Navarro High School: Geronimo, TX)

As an East Coast gal I find it stimulating to visit a different geographic region, much as children’s knowledge about how the land looks expands while on a local fieldtrip. On a 15-minute bus ride across the Potomac River from Virginia to Washington, D. C. I was given an education in how important fieldtrips are, both the travel and the destination. As we crossed the bridge I said to my 5-year-old seatmate, “Look out the window Joseph”, and he said, “Cool! It’s a big swimming pool!” Thinking he would understand that it was a continuous river of water if he saw the water on the other side of the bridge I said, “Look out the other window,” and Joseph said, “There’s two of them!”

Visiting Portland will develop my thinking about how children relate to new landscape and how they incorporate new knowledge into their existing framework—about waterfalls for example. Here in Virginia at the boundary between two physiographic provinces, the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain, a waterfall is significant because it marks the Fall Zone, that boundary where the harder rocks of the Piedmont end and the sediments of the Coastal Plain begin. Few of my students have seen waterfalls. I’ve heard that the Columbia River has many waterfalls where tributaries join it, as a result of the hardness of the volcanic basalt flows, the manner in which the basalt fractures, and erosion by the Columbia River over much time. I wonder if the waterfalls are the fieldtrip destination of students from the City of Portland and what children think when they see them?

Hope to see you in Portland,

Peggy