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We recently wrapped up a fun and occasionally noisy unit on sound in the Preschool classes. It began with the exploration of sound as a result of vibration. Students found that their own voices caused vibrations that they could actually feel when touching their throats. We then moved on to experiencing the way in which these vibrations travel through different materials. A knock on the table that was only a little bit loud sounded much louder when we put our ears down on the surface!
Next we experimented with the sounds and vibrations made by tuning forks. The children noticed that when the tuning forks were struck against a solid surface, they produced both sounds and vibrations. If they touched the tuning fork, the vibrations and the sound stopped. When we put one in water after striking it.... the water splashed right out of the bowl!
The students applied this understanding of sounds as vibrations to the design, construction, and playing of a variety of instruments over the course of several classes. These included kazoos, guitars, and percussive shakers.
For much of December and January, students throughout our Early Childhood division were engaged in learning about some aspect of robotics. Regardless of grade level, the core ideas were the same:
- Computers and robots are machines.
- They only work when they have a power source and can only do what people program them to do.
- They do whatever you tell them to do- even if you make a mistake and give them the wrong directions. They don’t know what you meant to do or what would make sense. They just follow the the steps of your program.
- A program is a set of directions that are in a specific code or language that the computer or robot has been designed to use. There are different kinds of codes used for different machines and different purposes.
- Each command, or piece of information, that is entered into the computer or robot (called “input”) causes a specific, predetermined response (called “output”)
Below are several photos from our Robotics unit in which the preschoolers learned to input commands for our BeeBots to follow. After lots of practice entering various sequences of commands to build accuracy, the children worked together in pairs- taking turns as "Navigator" and "Driver" to execute programs leading the robot on specific paths across a grid. You can find more about the work by visiting THIS POST on the Gordon School website.
November was a big month for aspiring civil engineers in the IDEA Lab as the preschool students took part in several bridge-building challenges and explored sturdy shapes for construction.
The first challenge was to construct a sturdy bridge that could span a fabric "river" using our LEGO Duplo construction sets. Through exploration and testing, the children discovered the value of sturdy abutments in the design of strong bridge.
This led us to a second challenge, building a bridge that spanned the river AND could support added weight. For inspiration, we turned to the fascinating picture book, Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing, which recounts the story of P.T. Barnum's daring parade of twenty-one elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge to showcase its strength in 1884, one year after its completion. For this challenge, the students tested the strength of their constructions by stacking as many wooden block "elephants" on top of their bridges as possible. I am happy to say that all of them ended up being able to support eight or more "elephants"!
The following week found us testing and comparing the strength of different shapes for supporting the weight of a wooden block (now serving as a bridge instead of an elephant). The children first made predictions about which shape was sturdier and then found out for themselves. Ask your child which was stronger- the triangle or the square. What would YOU predict?
The IDEA Lab remains "under construction" as preschoolers explore connections between 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional structures. Over the next few weeks the children's work in the Lab will provide an extension and hands-on opportunities to apply what they are learning about shapes in math.
The video below is an animation of the wordless book, Changes, Changes, by Pat Hutchins- an old favorite that we watched together before students worked with partners to build unique structures using identical sets of blocks. You can see some of their designs in the photos.
October: After examining and testing a variety of materials, the children were challenged to design, construct, and then test containers that could protect an egg and keep it from breaking during transport. In the videos below, students explain the thinking behind their creations.
prekgreeneggs.mp4prekeggblue.mp4lucastest.MOVAnd, as you can see in the video on the left, testing the containers was very serious business!
Over the past few weeks, the students have been exploring the idea of materials and their properties. They thought about which materials would be good choices for making familiar items: such as fabric for clothing, glass for a window, or rubber for a basketball. They also had fun imagining making silly materials choices, such as a window made out of bricks or a cooking pot made out of cotton fluff.
The slides to the left show some of the materials and objects we considered. There is also a fun video embedded in Slide 3 that you might enjoy watching with your child.
Preschoolers began their year in the IDEA Lab with a read-aloud of the book, Not A Box, written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis. The theme of both this book and its sequel, Not a Stick, is that the creative thinking that makes it possible to see beyond "what is" to "what could be" is a valuable skill. The bunny's ability to recognize a rocket ship or a volcano in what others might easily mistake for a large cardboard box is not unlike what is required of designers and engineers when seeking new solutions for or ways of thinking about problems.
After the story, the students were asked to use their imaginations to create their own "not a cardboard tube" out of recycled paper towel and toilet paper rolls. Following the initial construction and some revisions the following week, the children proudly shared their designs with their classmates and teachers- without one cardboard tube in the mix.
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