Blog feedMarble runs, friction, poetry and fun!
March 2nd, 2009Hello, I’m Kim Aplin. I’ve been working in the Consolarium with Derek Robertson since January. I was interested to read in The Times today that Scottish children are falling behind in science because they see science as ‘uncool’. Well this certainly was not the case at Meldrum School last week where children had been investigating friction and gravity and excited by their learning!…..
Kororinpa at Meldrum School: The project is now in full swing in P5. I was very pleased to see how enthusiastic and excited the children and their teacher, Hazel Sim, were about their whole learning experience. The work that had been done with the game involved the investigation of friction and the designing of the class marble run. The game had been used to analyze what they could incorporate into their designs for their marble runs. The class have worked together to create a wall mounted run that they are immensely proud of.
There had been a thorough investigation into friction with a consideration of where friction is helpful and unhelpful. One of the children suggested that making rubbings of the soles of shoes would allow them to study the patterns closely and then they could work out how the patterns related to friction and whether a shoe was ‘fit for purpose’ – an investigation suggested by the children with a real objective!
Hazel reported that the project has resulted in an excellent ethos in the classroom. The children are hooked into the learning and some in particular have displayed a real progress in developing their practical problem solving skills that they are now transferring into other curricular areas.The children are also planning and writing stories about their own marble characters and they are creating animated PowerPoint presentations of their stories so that they can be shared easily with younger children. The characters are displayed on the wall and the children are incorporating each other’s characters into their stories.The quality of the descriptive language in their stories is fantastic. The children also suggested writing poetry about the feelings and emotions you might feel if you were travelling down the marble run. The poems are tremendous with a rich and varied vocabulary that captures the imagined journey eloquently. Have a look at this example by Holly in P.5:
The Marble Run
Gradually, little by little
The marble starts to race
It’s very cold just now
Until it builds up its pace
Swerving, hopping, spiralling
It’s crashing quite a lot
So much friction going on
The marble’s getting hot
Wee! It made a jump
Lifting off happily on its back
Soaring over treetops high
Until its back on track
Very gently the marble
Skids daintily to a halt
It was dizzily racing down the run
Though it’s not the marble’s fault
The class described in detail how they worked together as a team to solve problems and listened to everyone’s ideas. They had also discussed their learning and thinking and this has been recorded in their big talking book and clearly illustrates the problem solving process that they have gone through.The class have designed and made their own games. They used Kororinpa to discuss what they liked about a game and incorporated these things into their own ideas for designs. They all agreed that playing Kororinpa gave them a really good starting point for the design process.They have even re-enacted being in a marble run with equipment in the gym!This is the first GBL project that Hazel has been involved in. She is delighted and excited by the learning that is taking place and how engaged and motivated the children are. It has resulted in quality discussion, quality work, confident children and a fun, active way to learn. The children summed it all up: “It has been a fun way of learning that made learning easier and gave us lots of ideas”. Kororinpa in Meldrum School has definitely facilitated the creation of a rich context for quality, active, challenging and enjoyable cross curricular learning!
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