K-2 Engineers Help Jack Carry His Golden Eggs to Safety!

Jack had a problem. In order to escape the hungry giant "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fumming" after him and deliver the golden eggs safely to his mother he needed to figure out how he could carry them down the beanstalk and still use his hands and arms for climbing! Once again, our Kindergarten, First and Second Grade engineers were put to work solving this problem. After all, wouldn't it be terrible if Jack kept dropping the eggs and shattering them below? Nobody would want to buy a golden egg that was shattered into a million pieces!

First, they set to work drafting their designs on our design tables.

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Next, our engineers put their designs into practice as they built prototypes to test with plastic eggs.

They went shopping for materials:

And began to build...

There were so many creative solutions. Would they work?

Jack sure has some strong muscles!

I'll bet you're wondering why Jack looks a lot like Ken. Jack is actually Ken's cousin~!

It was finally time to test using plastic eggs. One by one our engineers tested their designs by first attaching them to Jack and then racing to the bottom of the beanstalk hoping the egg would not fall out of the carrier!

After waiting an extra week while the Giant recovered from a stomach bug (probably ate too many Englishmen!) We were able to test our re-designed egg carriers. Some needed to be improved and reimagined. 

Our amazing engineers successfully designed several egg carriers that safety transported the golden eggs to the ground. We only had a few casualties!

K-2 Help Hansel and Gretel Rehabilitate the Witch!

Once our K-2 students heard the story of Hansel and Gretel they quickly decided that the witch needed to be taught a lesson about what it was like to be a "PAWS"itive member of OQS! We needed to design a trap that would capture, but not harm, the witch so she could be taught how to be kind and caring. After all, don't we all have goodness inside of us? We just needed to help her find her kind heart!
We started by drawing our design thoughts on our wipe off tables. There were so many great ideas!


 


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After spending time building and testing, it was time to put our designs to the test. Would they work? Did they meet the strict size specifications? We gathered around to watch.






















Lastly, we gathered together to reflect on our task and the process. We asked each grade level to think about what went well during the process, what challenges they had and how did they overcome them.
Mrs. Newton took notes...




When asked how they overcame the design challenges, many students responded with...
"I just kept trying."
"I thought about how to do it a different way."
"I asked a friend for help."
"I used perseverence!"
"I changed the whole idea."

Wow! We really are using our growth mindsets! Way to go K-2 students!

The Gingerbread Man Escapes the Hungry Fox!

Our K-2 engineers were at it again as they tackled the task of building bridges to help the gingerbread man escape the hungry fox during our fairy tale engineering unit.  First they listened to a retelling of the well known tale.
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They had to imagine what it would be like to be trapped on one side of the river with no way to escape a hungry fox that wanted to eat them!

                                           

Then they set to work carefully choosing their materials thinking about strength and stability. They need to make a bridge that met certain specifications and dimentions. This was a tough task! But, true to form, they didn't give up. They tried, failed, and tried again! They helped each other, gave each other ideas and improved their designs.







Then it was time to put them to the test using our gingerbread man! Would he be able to cross safely?