Building Baseball Towers

STEM at Schanen

 

Baseball                    Success

STEM Thursday, Schanen Elementary September 18th, 2014

Presenters: Ms. Bertadillo, Ms. Keeler,  Ms. Luthi,  Ms. McKenna, Ms. Moore, Ms. Ranger, Ms. Scherer, Ms. Torres, Ms. Valdez

ENGAGE

  • Why do some experiments fail?

  • What do scientists do when their experiments don’t work?

EXPLORE

Building Baseball Towers Lesson Plan

Building Baseball Towers Student Worksheet

THE CHALLENGE: create a structure that is as tall as possible and will support a baseball.

THE MATERIALS: 12 toothpicks, 5 mailing labels, 6 straws, 3 pieces of paper, 3 paper clips, 1 glove, 1 plastic bag, two pencils

Baseball Tower Materials

Kids building

EXPLAIN

TESTING TIME

  • Did the tower stand? If not, why not?

  • What worked well?

  • How can the structure be improved so that it is taller and stronger?

ELABORATE

take two

  • Were you able to improve your score from the first trial?
  • How well did your team work together?

EVALUATE

Thinker

WRITING TIME 

  • What did your group do that worked well?

  • What did you see another group do differently that either worked or didn’t work so well?

  •  What would you do differently if you had a chance to do a third trial?

  •   What three materials do you wish you had and how would you have used them?