Ewok Escape is one of 12 Design Challenges (7 current ones, and 5 in the archives) offered by Boston’s Museum of Science on their website. The question posed by this particular challenge is, “CAN YOU DESIGN AND BUILD A BALANCING DEVICE TO HELP AN EWOK ESCAPE THE IMPERIAL FORCES BY SLIDING DOWN A TIGHTROPE TO … Read more
Ever heard of Speed Dating? The concept is to meet with a person for a few minutes, chat, and then move on to another person. The short discussion with the potential date allows each participant to determine if he or she thinks it is worth pursuing the relationship any further. The other day, I saw … Read more
Although I have not participated in these Synergy challenges before, the e-mail from them in my mailbox the other day intrigued me. I think that students would be excited by the Winter Challenge, which is to design and produce a game. The deadline is April 1, 2012. There is no entry fee. See the website … Read more
I have never been good at building things, or at solving spatial puzzles, for that matter. But Bridge Builder is an intriguing problem-solving game that your students will enjoy. The object is to use the provided triangles to create a bridge for the motorcycle. You can rotate the triangles and change their size, if you … Read more
The mysterious Fibonacci pattern can be a great way to hook students into both math and science. Here is a fun video from YouTube that shows the connection, and a link to some Fibonacci lesson plans integrating music. Direct YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0
200 Ways to Show What You Know, brought to you by John Davitt from http://www.davittlearning.net, is a simple tool for generating ideas for products. In other words, it gives suggestions for different ways to “show what you know.” This allows the student to see that there are other options for projects besides Powerpoint presentations and … Read more