Makerspace in the Classroom - Geodesic Structures

Today's post is authored by one of our classroom teachers who has completely embraced the Maker Mindset and integrated it into her third grade classroom:

Each Monday my third grade class participates in a thirty minute STEM challenge. The students are given a task or “challenge” to complete in thirty minutes.

Our last challenge was to create a Geodesic structure that would hold a book or two! As a class we learned about what a geodesic structure was using Youtube to teach us ALL (me includedJ) to learn about these types of structures and how they are used in the world.                                            

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Epcot07.jpg

 Real world examples of Geodesic structures!

Then they needed to study the pictures (Engineering), figure out what shapes are used in the structure (Geometry) and then make a plan to build this structure (Career readiness skills).

The results were amazing! I am proud to report the winners of the challenge were two girls, both of whom are English Language Learners, who struggle with reading and writing on a daily basis. The girls were shocked to learn they were the winners! Never have seen smiles on their faces that big before! Now they can’t stop teaching others during about geodesic structures and how they won this challenge.

http://www.cdn.sciencebuddies.org/Files/5951/6/geodesic-dome-gumdrops-toothpicks.jpg

This is the reason why we take time to do Maker space!

The POWER of Maker space!

Julie LoDuca

Third Grade Teacher