Happy Tuesday!

Our morning began with a quick review of models discovered at home. From Hot Wheels cars to scaled miniature boba teas, students were able to identify the presence and importance of models in their everyday world. Then, we explored an overview of the Engineering Design Process to guide our learning and activities for the week. We discussed the first steps: Ask and Imagine. We asked, What is the problem we are trying to solve? We “imagined” how we could make and design a pool model to help solve our pool problem. Today we focused on the third step of the Engineering Design Process – Plan. We drew out our initial 2D sketch designs of the kind of pool we’d like to build – including the shape of the pool, where the deep end and shallow end would be, and 3 to 5 special features. Initial plans include features such as hot tubs, slides, a baby area, cabanas, and pool chairs. Ask your learner what special features they included in their design! Ask how they might represent that 2D special feature in their 3D model. Many learners took their plans one step further and accepted the challenge of transferring their sketch design to blueprint paper. We have future architects among us!

After we shared our initial sketch ideas, we jumped right into exploring measurement. We compared height, length, width, and depth. We learned that an item remains the same length even when placed in a different position. We compared lengths of objects like blocks, bins, and cups in relation to one another. We compared height, hair length, and shoulder width and realized how important it is to use specific language to communicate ideas related to measurement.

In the afternoon, we explored how 2D shapes are related to 3D shapes and tried our hand at creating 3D shapes. We sketched a 2D item and used Play-Doh to bring out creations to 3D life! Check out the photos!

Tomorrow, we’ll apply all of our learning to complete the first steps in creating our 3D pool model. We’ll use our 2D sketches to create the deep end and shallow end in our 3D models!