Thursday, December 12, 2019

Prototyping For Rapunzel

We are embarking again on a mission to work with fairy tales to solve engineering problems, but this year we are using the fairy tale anthology Power To The Princess, which retells traditional fairy tales with more of a "girl power" twist. In this telling of the story, Rapunzel is not stolen away and hidden in a tower awaiting her prince who will rescue her. She lives in the tower willingly as she apprentices with Mother Gothel, and tries to determine what her power is. Turns out, she has an amazing power to engineer and as an architect!

Image result for power to the princessImage result for power to the princess rapunzel

Students had to design a way for Rapunzel to enter and exit the tower safely, along with her visually-impaired friend, Prince Eustace, with whom she has a great business partnership, building structures that are beautiful but also handicap accessible.

See Mrs. Newton's video of the kindergarten working diligently here!

Here are some photos of the students prototyping their designs:

 



 

 




 



 



 




This week, students tested their designs and gave each other kind, specific, helpful feedback on what they liked and what worked in their design. They only lifted each other up, without being critical. What a thoughtful group of kids, and they were so successful!


 

 





 

 

So proud of these engineers! We'll be working on more fairy tale problems after break, and discussing where we see these types of technology in the real world!

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