As a result of the experiment work…
Although we planned to make 5 kinds of bridges originally, we completed just 2 kinds in the end. Since we went through 1 process to the next after all 10 groups completed each process, it consumed a lot of time. This in fact was a practical idea. Without doing so, it would be very difficult to control the class while some groups go ahead and others stay slow.
We made a comparison between a plain bridge and a girder bridge. Actually the time was almost up when all groups finished with a plain paper bridge. But without anything to compare with it, nothing can be discovered. So we really challenged the time to go through one more bridge.
We used an eraser as a weight. A plain piece of paper couldn’t hold even one. When they tried to put on one, the eraser fell down with the paper bridge. Children thought their experiment was fail if the bridge fell down, and they tried to hold each end of the paper so that they could load more erasers.
Now when they made a bridge with a 1cm-width of girder at each side of the paper, children found that they were able to pile up more and more erasers on the bridge! It was successful eventually to show children that the strength of a paper changes depending on its shape.
*The picture is a bridge with parapets.
Comentarios