Day Six 9/19/19:

Review:
Today the children simply went to work. They got out the ramps and got the blocks themselves and started working. I asked them simply, "can you make the marble turn/" "That's a tough challenge!" they quickly got to work trying different ideas.

The children went back to pushing pushing the marble when it would get stuck. I asked, "Can you make the marble move without touching it?"

"I'm trying to make it stop and 'Fwoooooooo'!" indicating a turn with her hand. "Hey guys! can you help me make it 'Fwooooooooo'?"


"Let's try this!" They tried making some slight curves with the ramps to see if the marble would turn on the track.

They did not stick with this idea very long and went back to building on the ideas from the day before. the ramps was long, but they experimented more with the height of the ramp.

The children worked in two separate groups with one group switching out blocks trying different heights for the starting point. The  even decided to try an incline at the end.

The other group continued to try starting the marble at different starting points to see if it would roll more smoothly.

They abandoned idea of the incline at the end and went back to the basket to catch the marble. They continued to try different variations of the same ramp alternating the degree of incline and starting point of the marble. interest grew in the jump at the end and another child joined the group.

Eventually all 4 were working on the same ramp, trying to troubleshoot and determine how they could successfully propel the marble into the basket.

Near the end they decided to try a small incline using a wedge at the end.

They tried dropping themoarble onto the ramp to see if that made a difference in the speed.

One child experimented using different items to make the ramp higher. He tried the marble several times to see if it went faster or slower with the changes.

They realized as the marble got faster that it was more likely to jump off the track. They were careful to make sure the track was straight and connected before trying the marble each time.

Each child took turns truing the marble on the ramp before changes were made.

They tried several runs at each height before making changes.

With the slight incline at the end, they decided to make "walls" to keep the marble on track and make it jump into the basket.

They added a few tunnels to the "slide" and adjusted the length by removing ramps in order to try to make a successful jump ramp at the end.

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