Modeling Your World: A SUCCEED
Workshop
Modeling Your World
Lego Activity:
- Goals:
- Facilitate understanding the importance of precise communication in
science.
- Understand creation of models as an indirect reference to
understanding a
concept that cannot be directly observed.
- Objective:
- Students will develop precise communication skills.
- Students will begin thinking about why scientists use computer models
to
study concepts that are not directly observable.
Overview: Students will attempt to describe the architecture of a
lego
structure to another group of students who have not seen the structure in
order to build a duplicate, identical structure. Note that this lesson
uses
four groups of students but any even number of groups will work, given
that
there are enough legos for each group.
Materials: Large lego blocks in which there are at least 4 of each
type of
block, stop watch, large area such as a parking lot or two adjoining
rooms.
Preparation: Design two identical lego structures. Design two
other
structures that are almost identical to each other but have one or two
slight variations, such as instead of using a single 2 x 2 block use 2 1
x
2 blocks or vary the colors between two blocks. See example structures
here. B--(this should be a link. place link here to pictures of the
structures. Draw arrows on the pictures and make note of the differences
between the structures. there should be pictures of the structures from
every angle and a listing of all the blocks used to build the structure.)
Prerequisite Knowledge:
none
Lesson Outline:
Focus and Review:
Ask students to discuss the importance of communication in science.
Objectives
State the objectives of the game, that students will be exploring the
importance of precision in scientific communication.
Teacher Input
Give the class an overview of how the exploration will be conducted.
Place students into two groups: group A and group B. Then have those
groups break into halves: one half of the group will be the describers
and
the other half will be the builders.
Guided Practice
Take both groups of describers into one room and both building groups
into
the other. Give each of the describer groups the first lego structure and
each of the builder groups the same legos as in the built lego structure
but
disassembled.
The describers should examine their structures carefully.
Each group is to send a runner into the hallway. The describer from
group
A has 45 seconds to attempt to describe the architecture of their lego
structure to the builder from group A. Likewise with the members from
group
B.
After45 seconds is up the runners should return to their respective
groups.
It is now up to the builder runner to attempt to relay the information to
the rest of the group and begin replicating the other structure. Give
another 45 seconds to the groups trying to replicate and then send the
second set of runners to the hallway.
Repeat this process 5 times with a different runner each time (if
there are
not five runners in each group then some will go twice).
At the end of 5 rounds, compare structures to see if it is built
correctly.
Independent Practice
At the end of 5 rounds, compare structures to see if it is built
correctly.
Independent Practice
Try the entire process again with a more complicated structure.
Closure
As a class, discuss some of the difficulties involved with the
process.
Questions you might want to ask:
- When did you notice that there had to be minor variations between
the
structures?
- Did it take long for the describing group to realize it was just as
important for them to listen as well as talk?
- Were there any strategies in particular that made this activity
easier
as you went along?
- What is the similarity between this activity and when scientists use
models/graphs/data in describing various phenomena (such as studying
galaxies, pollution, chemistry)?
Alternate Lesson Outline
The time allotted for each iteration as well as the number of rounds
to
build each structure can be varied.
Use a journal for the closure rather than class discussion.