Super Structure Scavenger Hunt

Activity Overview

As they grow and develop, children are presented with more and more challenging problems to solve. One-step problems lead to multi-step problems, which require greater working memory and the ability to hold many pieces of information in one’s head at a time. Children see models of problem-solvers every day - the adults in their lives constantly solve problems at home, at work, in their community, and for themselves. In this activity, students will be introduced to a character in a text whose passion and knowledge of architecture helps him solve a problem for his classmates. They will then review the skills that the character used to solve the problem he contended with, and reflect on how this example of courage and quick thinking can be useful to their own practice as problem-solvers. Finally, through the scavenger hunt, children will have an opportunity to embody Iggy Peck and his love for building by engaging in an architectural vocabulary challenge.

What You Need

• A device for taking pictures (phone, tablet, or camera)

• Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty

• Super Structures template

Steps

1. Read Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and ask students to help you review the steps Iggy takes to solve the problem. Use the guiding questions below to discuss the concepts related to problem-solving and building structures.

2. Ask students to think about some structures that are in your neighborhood, such as homes, buildings, bridges, tunnels, or other architectural structures nearby. Ask students to describe those structures. What materials are they made of? How do the pieces work together to make it strong?

3. Go on a scavenger hunt and look for interesting buildings or structures in your area. Some examples may be houses, libraries, office buildings, highways, or bridges. Make note of some specific adjectives to describe each structure you identify and take a photo that highlights that particular attribute.

4. Use the Super Structures template to write out the chosen adjectives. Either print out or scroll through the photos and match the adjective that you selected to describe each structure with the photos. For example, you may describe a picture of a bridge as “arched,” or a picture of a school as “massive.”

Guiding Questions

• How did Iggy Peck solve the big problem?

• How did he know to fix it that way, and how did he know it would work?

• How would you have solved the big problem? Would you build a bridge like Iggy, or make something else?

• How do architects describe what they make?

• How would you describe the structures that Iggy builds?

Extensions

• Explore the Engineering Challenge Project Bank, and try out a different prompt each day.