I must apologise, I thought I had sent this, found it sitting in my outbox.
My original request
was for ideas for a school wide problem solving activity, something besides
an egg/pumpkin/something
else drop.
Here are the ideas. We are looking into the pea or bean shoot idea.
I have seen where kids make cars from mousetraps. It was a national contest
and there might be some rules out there. A community event is making
cardboard boats and see how far they can be rowed before they fall apart.
Liability might be an issue there!
Destination Imagination
http://www.destinationimagination.org/program/challenge04_05.htm has some
suggestions. The bridge building looks exciting.
Have you tried a pea or bean shoot? Teams of students must build something
that will propel the designated object (when my son participated the object
was a dry garbanzo bean) a designated distance such as 30 feet or fifty
feet. The winners were those who achieved the closest to the exact
distance. Make it more difficult, say it must also hit a target.
NASA has competitions as part of its NASA Student Involvement Program. For
High School
the problems are listed on their website
http://www.nsip.net/competitions/index.cfm
Design a Lunar-Based Mission to Mars and Beyond
Watching the Earth Change
Space Flight Opportunities
Destination Imagination http://www.destinationimagination.org/
Fosters creative problem solving
Destination ImagiNation® At A Glance
Destination ImagiNation®, a product of Destination Imagination, Inc., is
one of the world's largest
creativity and problem solving programs for youth of all ages, with
thousands of participants in
47 US states, 15 countries and Canadian provinces participating annually.
It is operated by Destination
Imagination, Inc., a 501C3 non-profit corporation located in Glassboro,
New Jersey. Although this is the
fifth program year under the brand name Destination ImagiNation®, the
former corporate name of the
organization was OM Association, Inc. which has existed as a non-profit
organization since 1983 and
has had now more than 20 years experience creating quality problem solving
programs for kids.
The President of Destination Imagination, Inc., is Robert T. Purifico,
himself a former Team Manager,
Official, League, Regional and Affiliate Director as well as Board member
since 1985 and appointed
as Executive Director of the then OM Association, Inc. in 1995.
Destination ImagiNation® helps kids develop a unique and critical skill set
by emphasizing:
Creativity Problem Solving Teamwork
Brainstorming Project Management Time Management
Creative & Critical Thinking Skills Knowledge Application
Collaboration
Presentation Skills Confidence Research Skills
Destination ImagiNation® is not just an extracurricular activity, it is an
extension of a Destination
ImagiNation® brand of curriculum which draws on Creative Problem Solving
strategies and the
multiple intelligences of students to use what they have learned in the
classroom in new and creative ways.
The Destination ImagiNation® program helps kids build important, lifelong
skills, such as problem solving,
teamwork and divergent thinking. Our teams solve two types of Challenges
within the program year. The
Central Team Challenge involves structural, technical or theatrical
oriented Challenges and takes several
months to solve. Throughout that time the teams also practice
improvisational Instant Challenges, which
stimulate the team's ability to think quickly and creatively with only
minutes to prepare solutions.
When tournament time rolls around, each team's score reflects its Central
Team Challenge performance plus
its response to an Instant Challenge.
Creativity isn't just a school year activity. Many state, local and
international affiliates offer creativity activities for
kids year-round, including summer camps that incorporate all of the fun
and thoughtful activities that make learning
interesting.
Destination ImagiNation® is a membership-based organization. On a yearly
basis, thousands of committed volunteers,
parents, educators, and former program participants generously offer their
time and effort in support of the program.
Many of these volunteers serve as Team Managers, Program Coordinators,
Tournament Officials as well as Affiliate and International Board members.
Corporate America believes in Destination ImagiNation®! Our program
receives significant corporate support from
several important organizations, including National Dairy Council (our
International Sponsor) as well as 3M, Philips
Consumer Electronics, Inc., Best Buy and Sam Goody. Sponsorship
opportunities exist at the international and local levels.
Are there some 'real world' situations facing your students like a
dangerous bus stop, inadequate playground
equipment, scheduling problems, provide better lunch choices but at less
cost, etc. The students may be able
to brain storm things they would like to 'fix'.
I don't know whether you have the same problem I do at my school, but we
have an infestation of Canada Geese on our campus. You're in Germany,
right?) (Each bird produces one pound of feces per day. I tried to interest
our science department in doing research into the problem and how to solve
the problem. Nobody is interested, but I think it would be well worthwhile
for kids to research a problem that is really a problem and has economic
and
health impact.
We have a science/math team teaching group that does a contest like that
to build a bridge to see how much weight it holds before it breaks.
They always have the big "breaking" event at open house. This year I
think they did something with kites in the halls, too. I could check if
you want to get more info.
Deborah J. Stafford
Gen. H.H. Arnold High School
Wiesbaden Germany
now proudly on the web at http://www.wies-hs.eu.odedodea.edu
Deborah_Stafford@compuserve.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/
LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home