Today the 3rd graders worked on the Designing step of the invention process. This work has been very laborious and has required a lot of self-drection. I am SO PROUD of the work these students have done so far! I barely had to manage students today because they were largely so focused on their work and letting the challenging work motivate them. This is fantastic practice for GATE students!

After the Designing step comes Building and Testing. Most students will be completing these steps in the classroom during our next class, but I know that some students are eager to get to work over Thanksgiving Break. This is by no means required, but I know that some students have plans that reach outside the scope of my classroom craft supplies, so please talk to your 3rd grader to see what their plan is and if it is realistic to be done in the classroom, needs to be adjusted, or needs to be completed outside of the classroom.

I have included the steps for the Designing, Building, and Testing steps below. Students who work outside of the classroom may record their process through each of the steps and tape/glue them into their logbooks when they return to class. Photos are also an excellent addition to logbooks and eventually display boards!

Found below are also the judging criteria. Even if families decide to not have their 3rd graders participate in the competition, a judge will still give the student feedback on their project based on the criteria.

Sorry photos have been lacking the last few weeks! Invention Convention work keeps me pretty busy and makes it hard to take photos throughout the day!