The team did some pretty serious work on their main challenge today. They have settled on bees as their "featured creature" and the main three dimensional set piece will be a bee hive that they will rotate, one side will be the outside of the hive and the other side will be the interior of the hive. The two forms of communication (I think) will be a dance bee's do to communicate, the other will be a scent trail they leave to lead bees to flowers.
We also did an instant challenge involving building a sailing type vehicle that travels on a wire propelled by a fan. The team was very successful with this challenge easily traversing the entire length of the wire.
There are some new pictures to check out in the photo album. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving.
Thanks,
Mr. H
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Meeting #4 - 11/16/08
This meeting we reviewed the animal communication research the various team members did. After everyone presented their information the team was heavily leaning towards doing some type of an insect, bees, ants, praying mantises, etc. The team is intrigued by having to build sets showing the size of the insects. Before the next meeting everyone is going to try and do some more research about how a variety of insects communicate with each other. One of the key elements of the challenge is to depict two ways the "feature creature" communicates. The method of communication must be a real way the animal communicates.
We also did two small instant challenge type activities. The first involved trying to pass an object around a circle. Each person in the circle has a number but they are not standing next to the person that has the number above or below theirs. First they must pass one object from person to person in ascending order. After they mastered that we added another object they had to pass in descending order. Finally they had to pass a cup of water around the outside of the circle while also passing the other objects in ascending and descending order. As you can probably imagine this is relatively difficult. The team got pretty good at it but didn't really master the three objects at the same time. The second instant challenge activity was telling a story together. We did this two different ways, first each team member could only say one word, they we did a variation where a team member had to keep telling the story while I was pointing at them. We improved situations involving the different animals they researched.
This Thursday we hope to visit Notre Dame elementary school and help them since this is the first year they have done DI. We have at least three team members that have volunteered to participate. Please check the photo album for the latest pictures.
We also did two small instant challenge type activities. The first involved trying to pass an object around a circle. Each person in the circle has a number but they are not standing next to the person that has the number above or below theirs. First they must pass one object from person to person in ascending order. After they mastered that we added another object they had to pass in descending order. Finally they had to pass a cup of water around the outside of the circle while also passing the other objects in ascending and descending order. As you can probably imagine this is relatively difficult. The team got pretty good at it but didn't really master the three objects at the same time. The second instant challenge activity was telling a story together. We did this two different ways, first each team member could only say one word, they we did a variation where a team member had to keep telling the story while I was pointing at them. We improved situations involving the different animals they researched.
This Thursday we hope to visit Notre Dame elementary school and help them since this is the first year they have done DI. We have at least three team members that have volunteered to participate. Please check the photo album for the latest pictures.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Meeting #3 - 11/1/08
We were short handed this meeting with only four team members able to attend. Please keep in mind it's not a problem if someone can't make a meeting.
We spent some time discussing the main challenge selection. The team members present agreed to take a fresh look at challenges B & C since these challenges had the most variety of tasks, some elements involving building and designing, some elements involving writing and acting. The team members present settled on challenge B - Animal Instinct. This is a very interesting looking challenge with some interesting possibilities. The team brainstormed a list of 14 possible animals they could use for this challenge and assigned two animals to each team member to research before our next meeting. The goal of the research is to identify how the animals communicate. Depicting this communication is central to the challenge. Here are the animal assignments...
Grant - Hippos, Chicken
Tamera - Mice, Dogs
Chloe - Giraffe, Fish
Erin - Elephants, Ants
Ben - Birds, Starfish
Katie - Cats, Bees
Austin - Whales, Kangaroos
Next the team did an instant challenge where they had to build a ramp using some stuff I brought along. The goal was to have a matchbox car roll down the ramp to see how far it could jump (Evil Knievil) style. The team dove right in and built an impressive tall ramp. It was able to jump about 4 cardboard bricks. A picture is worth a thousand works so check out the picture album below. If you ever want to view larger versions of the pictures just click on the small photo album below.
Finally the team worked some more on their egg event preparations. They practiced the long jump event and the high jump event and were getting pretty good at it. After breaking the final egg they headed back inside to make some last minute adjustments to their catching device. They also decided they would like to all wear helmets next week to the egg event. The team would like everyone to bring a helmet to the event next week, a bike helmet, football helmet, hard hat, etc. Katie is going to make some team stickers to put on everyone's helmet the morning of the egg event.
Next week - the egg event!
We spent some time discussing the main challenge selection. The team members present agreed to take a fresh look at challenges B & C since these challenges had the most variety of tasks, some elements involving building and designing, some elements involving writing and acting. The team members present settled on challenge B - Animal Instinct. This is a very interesting looking challenge with some interesting possibilities. The team brainstormed a list of 14 possible animals they could use for this challenge and assigned two animals to each team member to research before our next meeting. The goal of the research is to identify how the animals communicate. Depicting this communication is central to the challenge. Here are the animal assignments...
Grant - Hippos, Chicken
Tamera - Mice, Dogs
Chloe - Giraffe, Fish
Erin - Elephants, Ants
Ben - Birds, Starfish
Katie - Cats, Bees
Austin - Whales, Kangaroos
Next the team did an instant challenge where they had to build a ramp using some stuff I brought along. The goal was to have a matchbox car roll down the ramp to see how far it could jump (Evil Knievil) style. The team dove right in and built an impressive tall ramp. It was able to jump about 4 cardboard bricks. A picture is worth a thousand works so check out the picture album below. If you ever want to view larger versions of the pictures just click on the small photo album below.
Finally the team worked some more on their egg event preparations. They practiced the long jump event and the high jump event and were getting pretty good at it. After breaking the final egg they headed back inside to make some last minute adjustments to their catching device. They also decided they would like to all wear helmets next week to the egg event. The team would like everyone to bring a helmet to the event next week, a bike helmet, football helmet, hard hat, etc. Katie is going to make some team stickers to put on everyone's helmet the morning of the egg event.
Next week - the egg event!
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