It's very meta, what I do...

Still scrambling for useful activities for the four calculus students I have-- I'm still waiting for the rest to have their programs changed (I'm told "probably by the end of next week." I'm understandably depressed about losing as much as three weeks from an already challenging situation, but it's like the man says: "Life is what happens while you're making other plans.")

So, today's particular scramble was this: I walked into the room, thinking "we should build something." I opened the cabinet of building supplies, and saw that I have 20 popsicle sticks and a ton of glue. Okay, glue-and-wood structures, with obvious materials limits (5 sticks per person). Too few to make much of a bridge. Let's go for height: "Build the tallest free-standing tower you can build," says I.

"I need some tape," says Coria. "No," says I, "no tape."

"Can I have some scissors?" asks Diana. "Sure, here."

So, tools are allowed, but materials are not. I observe what they're doing, out of one eye, while also checking and replacing calculator batteries. "Are you just making us do this so that you can do the calculators?" Diana again. "No," says I, "or I'd make you do the calculator batteries. My point here is to watch how you develop a plan, how you design and modify that design."


After 20 minutes, the projects are all wet and messy, and nothing's coming together too well: we need some time for glue to dry. I assign a writing piece: "Write about your original plan, and how your plan changed: what caused your plan to change, and how did you integrate that change? Finally, do you expect any further changes in your plan?"

Then I decide to sit down and do the same writing assignment, myself...


So, my plan was to force them into making some sort of plan of attack, on a very open-ended problem. As soon as they started into it, it occurred to me that the teachable moment here probably has to do with metacognition, and getting them to look at how they approach a problem, and how they deal with setbacks in that approach. I started hatching the idea of making them write about it about 10 minutes in, and slipped that in as a nice way of forcing them to take hands off, while they waited for the glue to dry a bit.

From here, the plan is to let them finish, and measure, and do a show-and-tell of their towers, followed by some reading (and re-writing, where needed) of their written pieces, as well as adding a fourth question to the writing: "Compare and contrast your final tower with your very first idea. You may include sketches, and discussions of expected vs. actual height." But it's very possible that the plan will end up leaving that bit out, or the presentations may get cut short, depending on how responsive they are to all of it.

I'm also planning to end by sharing this writing with them. Maybe I'll even start getting students commenting on this blog.


Juliana suggests, "Next time you do this, use marshmallows instead of glue. It works better with marshmallows." Good idea, and less messy.