Day Two 9/10/19:

Review:
I reviewed what we had done before by asking questions. I also went over the safety rules.
So, we did you do yesterday? What problems did you have? We briefly reviewed from the day before where the students simply explored the ramps, blocks, and a single marble.

 I decided to introduce a challenge... which they were excited about. So, I asked if they could make the marble turn. They immediately said “no”. They said the ramps had to be straight for the marble to roll. So, I didn’t push.

 They noticed was that the marble kept rolling away. So I asked them if they could figure out a way to stop it without touching it. Immediately they said sure... come on let's try. They decided to use blocks as a barrier as seen in pictures. I let them keep trying ideas. The marble kept rolling away. So, I asked if they could make it “stop”.

Still no turning,  but I decided that was too much too quickly and we would focus simply in making it stop.

They tried blocks at the end and several ideas.

 They accidentally knocked the ramps slightly crooked and rolled the marble. In this they discovered it could “turn”, but they “had a problem”. So I asked them to tell me more... “they said it bounced off the track at the turn.

Second challenge:
Can you make it turn?

One said, "No! It won't work because they are straight. we don't have any curvy pieces. I asked her what she meant by curvy pieces and she replied "like my brother's train tracks... it has circle pieces. We need some of those!" It has to be straight... it won't turn.











They decided to try again, but continued to build straight across the floor as shown. They got it to consistently stop but could not figure out how to make it turn. It was difficult not to show them or prompt them. However, one got knocked slightly sideways, but said it kept bouncing off the "track'.







So I asked if they had any ideas about how to keep it on the track. they said we need to stop "the bumps" in the track.

They over lapped them slightly as shown. It continued to bounce off, but they saw the possibility. They tried it several times, then one student presented the idea that they might could bounce it off a "wall" by using the same idea that they used to make it stop by making "walls". However they continued to make it longer.

They continued to test the ideas and make adjustments as they continually tried the marble to see what happened.

Success! It turned without leaving the track. You can see the celebrations! From these activities, I was able to determine what they had discovered so I could know my challenges for the next day. They were very eager for me to return the next day.