This week during our pull-out enrichment time, fifth graders teamed up with the gifted third graders to take on a cup stacking challenge. Students were given 10 cups, a long piece of string, and a single rubber band. The challenge - to stack the cups into tower without touching the cups at all! After the challenge was over, we discussed the challenges of the task, what would have made the challenge easier, and alternative ideas for tackling the challenge. This was a great exercise in problem solving, critical thinking, cooperation, collaboration, and communication!
Widest Structure Challenge
This week students were given an interesting engineering challenge - create the widest structure possible with only a 1.5 inch cube as the base. They were able to create their structure using the cube, cups, and popsicle sticks. When first posed with this challenge, many students thought it wasn't possible to build something wide off of the 1.5 in cube base, but soon their problem solving and critical thinking abilities kicked in and they came up with some very interesting solutions to the challenge!
Beekeepers - A Real Life Math Challenge
This week we read about Dan and Judy Harvey - two beekeepers working to improve the conditions of honeybees. As we read about Dan and Judy's work with bees, students were faced with several real-life math problems to solve. They had to rely on the information in the text to help them solve the problems. It was a great way to combine reading and mathematics. As we progressed through the passage, the challenges got increasing harder! Students persevered and did a great job using their mathematical understanding to solve these real-life problems!