Trying something new

The end of the school year fast approaches and many of my classes are finishing up projects and all of the planned curriculum for the year. In the case of my 6th period advanced technology class, they were reaching a stalemate on their current project(s). Those who were going to do the work had it nearly done and those who weren't doing any work were continuing to find other things to occupy their time that had NOTHING to do with what they were supposed to be doing. So I set the deadline for the last day on the project and stuck to it. Many got something done, a few didn't have much done at all. Anyways, after the project normally we would do a mini-unit on mass production. However, I only had three-four days left of the school year which would not be enough time for the students to have the experience I wanted them to have. I decided to do something completely different that I never tried with my classes before.

For our sixth grade classes we take a few days to do a mini-unit on rocketry. We discuss Newton's Laws of motion and what keeps a rocket up in the air and then we make paper rockets. I have found the paper rocket activity to be easy enough for a second grader to complete yet fun enough to keep the interest of even 8th graders. In this case, I had about 25-30 nose cones left from this year so I decided to have my 8th grade class mass produce paper rockets. I demonstrated the process to create the rocket (which done efficiently can be accomplished in about 5-10 minutes). As I explained each step I told them "this could be a job," "this step, #8, should be broken down into two jobs," and so on. Next I divided the class into team equally sized teams, and told them to assign each other jobs. I gave both teams about 10 minutes of planning time to get organized before giving the official start.

Of course, the students complained after doing the same job for about 15 rockets about how boring it is to do the same job over and over again. I can't even imagine what a fuss they would make if we made enough paper rockets for the entire 8th grade! That would be quite a fun project. Block out several periods, and have them just work and work and really get the sense of a REAL assembly line. As they complained, I explained to them the benefits of the assembly line process and how it really sped up production and thus lowered the cost of creating many things like the car, clothes, shoes, computers, etc.

I really got excited to see the students working hard to beat out the other team. They really took hold of the project and did a good job. We judged which team won by how many rockets they produced that had a 'successful'* launch. While one team had more successful launches, the other team had more rockets that went higher and further. So in the end they both won out.

One of the things I love about teaching technology is how I can constantly change the curriculum to fit my students' needs and to keep pace with the world's changing technology. If ever I get complacent and teach the same thing too many years in a row I feel like I'm doing my students a disservice. What becomes especially fun is this time of the year when I've covered most of the 'planned' curriculum and I get to come up with meaningful activities to keep the students engaged in learning and yet excited about doing the activities/projects.

*a successful rocket launch became defined as one where the rocket returned to earth in one piece with at least two fins still intact.