LEGO Balance Acrivity

In the homestretch!!

Had so much fun designing and building this activity, so without much further ado I present to you Activity Number Five: LEGO Balance Activity! This activity is aimed more for the students in grades K-5, uses logic and reasoning skills, and is more technology and science focused. I hoped to incorporate a skill they will need later in their educational career, using a balance and making predictions.

How will this activity work?

So to begin with, I built a balance made entirely out of LEGOS that is fully functional and quite accurate. Afterwards, I put modge podge over the legos to seal them together and ensure nothing falls apart.

Next up, I bought, glued, and painted wooden circles that are each a different size, weight, and color. Then to add more options, I also bought and glued together foam cubes that varied in their shape and mass.

Wooden Circles

Foam Cubes

I then created cards that asks the students "What weighs more" and underneath is a picture of each a cube and a circle configuration.

Red cubes OR Orange circles

Blue cubes Or Green circles

Green cubes OR Blue circles

Yellow cubes OR Purple circles

The students will then place the cubes and circles on each side of the balance and see if what they though would happen is accurate or completely different!
This is more of a simpler activity that I hope the students will easily be able to catch on to and will engage the students interest and further their developing minds! :)

Multiplication Puzzle Grab

We are halfway there!

Moving right along... to our next activity: Multiplication Puzzle Grab! This was by far the most extensive and challenging activity yet! But also my favorite and most rewarding project. :) This activity is geared for students in grades 3-5 and requires a large range of  skills from math in the form of multiplication, engineering by way of constructing a puzzle, and technology via a mechanical claw grabber.

The Process:
The first step was to come up with a list of multiplication questions ranging in difficulty tailored to the different age groups. I created an easy, medium, hard, and challenge category with numerous problems in each.

The next idea I had was to incorporate some sort puzzle into this activity. I suddenly realized what I could do! For each set of problems I created a key

and there would be a corresponding set of wooden blocks, each with a different number (1) on the ends and a picture (2) on the main face.
1-

2-

The number would correspond to the answer of the multiplication question and a number on a mat.

So I color coded each category and painted that color on the side of the corresponding blocks, to differentiate between the puzzles and their level of difficulty.

Each category has their own "multiplication mat"

Within this project I wanted to somehow incorporate a mechanical claw grabber, so I decided that once the student solved the problem, found the correct block with the answer on it, they could grab the block from a container and place it in the corresponding space on the mat.

Once they solved each problem and place all the blocks in their correct space, the paintings on each block would come together to create one BIG picture! (There are 4 pictures in total)

It seems like a long process, but is actually very simple and entertaining to carry out and I really enjoyed being creative with this activity to add fun into hard work! :)

Additional picture of the progress:

Marble Mazes Activity

Hello, It's ME!

Moving on to the next project... Marble Mazes! This is the second activity going to be available for students in grades K-2. This is a fun and entertaining activity that demonstrates speed, gravity, and velocity while using a mathematical approach as they estimate and record time measurements. Not to mention the much needed, hand-eye coordination skill!


I (and various volunteers) have assembled two mazes consisting of multiple slides and rotating wheels that reach up to two feet, taking over 2 hours to build.
Construction in progress:

The goal of this activity is to have various marbles, each different colors and weights, and a stopwatch. 
There will be a sheet that asks the students: Which marble will reach the bottom the fastest? They will first make their prediction and write it down, then they will time each marble on the length of time it takes each to reach the bottom from dropping one at a time at the top. After timing each marble they will write that time next to the image of the marble.

After testing all the marbles they can see if their prediction was correct!

Video of the smaller, dark green marble in the maze:

Even though this took a long time to build and research the best marble maze possible, it was an overall very enjoyable process and I am looking forward to seeing the students excitement and eagerness to try this activity!

LEGO Addition Mats

I'M BACK!

Onto Round #2! This activity took a little longer than a week to complete because there were so many tedious tasks to be completed. So up next... LEGO Addition Mats!

This activity is for the students in grades K-2. They will be using hands-on, mathematical, and problem solving skills to complete this task. 

How does it work? 

There are laminated cards that each provide a simple addition problem (e.g. 3 + 3) and the students will write the numbers on the boxes on the right.

Second, they will place LEGO® bricks in the top and middle boxes, and then count the bricks figure out the sum. Voila!

This math activity is perfect at introducing a unique way to add for students beginning to learn these concepts.

In order for this activity to be reused over and over again, I placed the addition mat templates inside of Write and Wipe Pockets so the students can use a dry erase marker to solve the problems!

This activity took a while because the addition question cards had to be laminated, the addition mat template had to be printed and placed inside of the Write and Wipe Pockets (they were hard to find!), I had to buy dry erase markers, and search for the small lego bricks. But all the hard work paid off! I can't wait for the students to use the mats and allow it to assist them in their math learning. ;)

Landmark Challenge Card Activity

Welcome back!

After getting my project approved by my mentor and members of the Girl Scout Council I can now begin the process of creating the activities. I have started on the first of six activities I plan on doing,. First up...  The Landmark Challenge Card Activity!

This is one of my favorite activities for students in grades 3-5 and will require engineering and critical thinking skills. There are a total of nine cards that each feature a famous landmark from somewhere in the world, and the goal is for the students to use the large blocks provided to build a structure that closely resembles the image they see. 

Some of the cards include the Colosseum (Rome,Italy), Empire State Building (New York, USA), Pyramids of Giza (Giza, Egypt), and Stonehenge (Wiltshire, England).

To assist the students if they are stuck or need a visual aid to build the structure, I (and various volunteers) have built these structures using the blocks, taken pictures of each, printed the images out, and attached them to the back of the corresponding structure it resembles. After the image is attached to the back of the card, I laminated the cards to ensure it lasts. 

Below are pictures of a few of the cards (front and back) and the blocks that are going to be used to construct the landmarks:

Here is an image of me in ACTION!