Our 3 6th grade classes are starting the project this week. I'm really excited to be doing Pringles again! Last year we received packages from the other schools before our students designed their own packages. The students found it easy last year to learn from other students' good and not-so-good ideas. I found last year that kids were real critical of packages that came in the mail that did not adhere to this or that specific limitation ("They put aluminum foil in this package! Horrors!"). This year, since they will be designing without the benefit of seeing other people's work first, it will be interesting to see how their thinking differs.
I'm also looking forward to reading about other schools' experiences on this blog. I hope people take advantage of this great opportunity.
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2 comments:
This is our third year in the Pringles Challenge. The most helpful thing we do is that we create 2 boxes. The first one is the test box. We measure and weigh our boxes, throw them around a LOT, then open and score them.
This is a great learning opportunity for the students to see what will happen in the mail. It's a great time to teach about potential and kinetic energy as well.
When the students have scored theirs, they build a second, better box. This activity is money in the bank, because they already have "field experience".
Last year, we laughed a lot when our sister school sent us Pringles in soda cans, Marlboro boxes, etc. It was fun to see how creative they were!
I can't wait for this year!
I hadn't thought of that! I do potential and kinetic when we do our cratering lab and make craters in flour and chocolate powder by dropping the same sized bean from three different heights floor, tabletop and out the second story window! How do you measure or discuss the potential energy with the Pringle's box?
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