Miss Alissa Barber’s fourth grade class at McConnellsville Elementary School is learning the ins and outs of inventing as part of a science unit called Eureka! Student Inventor. During a ten lesson unit, students pretend they are on a game show and earn points and velcro wedges for their “Invention Wheel”.
As part of the first lesson, or episode, students focused on earning the collaboration wedge. Students had to follow a carefully-designed set of collaboration rules that they learned while completing the “ultimate challenge” set before them.
The challenge was to invent a tool that could pick up a ping pong ball and deposit it into a basket. Students needed to complete this task using ten tissues, a pack of rubber bands, and two pencils. They could not touch the ball with their hands. They used the device to pick the ball up from a table and pass it among members of the lab group. Each member of the group had to be in control of the ball for at least three seconds, and then the team could deposit the ball into the basket.
To start off the process, students had five minutes to brainstorm alone and filled out an invention brainstorming sheet in their Eureka Files notebook. It was during that time that their ideas for creating a tool to complete the challenge took shape. Barber then had students work in their lab groups to collaborate on their ideas and see if they could combine any of those ideas together to solve the problem at hand.
With ideas on the table, Barber then gave out the materials for students to complete the challenge. With the devices built, each group set out to complete the challenge. Barber stated that she was particularly impressed with how each group supported the other groups in completing the challenge by being respectful and encouraging.
Each group was able to successfully complete the challenge at hand. While the end results were a success, Barber thought the process of getting there was just as impressive with the variety of creative ideas implemented by her students.
“It was amazing to see all of the different tools that students came up with for this challenge all just using the same materials,” Barber said. “Each group followed all of the rules of collaboration and loved working together!”