Pringles Challenge 2008

posting of results

2008-03-06T07:42:00.002-05:00

When I look on the partners map, I see scores posted for our partner school. I assume that these scores are for THEIR packages. There are no scores posted beside our school. We are #11 on the partners page, Jersey Shore Area Middle School (us) and Stonewall Jackson Middle school.

Mr. Lindgren, did you receive our scores for Stonewall's packages? (I think that these are the posted scores, but I'm not 100% certain.) Did you receive scores on our packages from Stonewall Jackson MS? Is there just a backlog in getting them posted - a huge job, I'm sure. Students were asking if they could see their scores on the website.

Can you comment on any of this? Thanks.

Last Call!

2008-03-03T05:42:00.002-05:00

It's time to end this. For those of you who haven't posted your scores, get it done this week. If there is a problem in getting that done, just let me know. A million thanks to all of you that participated in the challenge. We had more than 5,000 students this year sending chips across the country. Watch the website to see when the Challeneg will happen again. I'm toying with doing it twice next year. The number of schools was very difficult this year. Maybe running it once in the fall (October-November?) and then in the winter (January-February?) would be easier. Your thoughts?

Have a great remainder of the year!

Charlie

Huge Thanks to Charlie

2008-02-28T09:03:00.002-05:00

I would like to take a moment and thank Charlie for the tremendous amount of work that has undoubtedly gone into the Challenge this year. Opportunities like these don't come around every day. My students had a wonderful experience with the Challenge. Keep up the amazing work! I look forward to collaborating with you on the Pringles Challenge and any other activities/ideas in the future!

The Scores are Posted!

2008-02-22T21:37:00.002-05:00

Please take a minute to check out the scores. See if I've made any terrible mistakes. If there are any (and I'm sure there must be one or two!) let me know and I'll correct them. The easiest way to do that is to resubmit the spreadsheet, don't make me hunt through 400+ e-mails. Just tell me what's wrong, and I'll try to make it go away. There are still many blanks. Send the data as soon as you can.

Clear Skies (not here, we're buried),

Charlie

I'm Back!

2008-02-21T14:14:00.002-05:00

Greetings! I had a great time on "The Coast." We came back to the other Coast just in time to catch the eclipse. We got the cats back this morning, and I saw that I had 453 e-mail messages! I'll start to add your results to your pages. It looks like I have about 70 messages with scores from you. They shoul all be up by the end of the day tomorrow. We're getting a major snowstorm tomorrow, so I'm not going anywhere.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Need email address

2008-02-12T09:01:00.001-05:00

I need the email to send scores to.

Mike

Final Posting of Results

2008-02-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

Greetings! Hopefully you're buried in packages, and amazed at the schemes and strategies your partner school used. If you post me your results by Wednesday of this week, they will be posted immediately to the website. We are on vacation after that, so don't look for anything to be posted until after the 20th. Speaking of the 20th, there's a total eclipse of the Moon that night. Don't forget to tell your students about it. It's tough for me because we're on vacation, but hopefully they'll remember.

Clear Skies (especially on the 20th),

Charlie

Writing on Packages

2008-02-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

Can packages have both "FRAGILE" and "HANDLE WITH CARE" on them? Or, can they only have one or the other? Just want to be consistent.

Thanks!!

Cost of Challenge

2008-02-05T18:50:00.001-05:00

I mailed off my packages yesterday - all except for 2 that the post office refused - one didn't meet 1st class mail criteria and the other used a priority mail box. I sent them home with the kids today to fix and I am going to mail them tomorrow. My total bill came to right over $110! The kids really enjoyed this project and I feel that it was a wonderful thing for them to participate in. But how does everyone else pay for this? I was able to tap in to some money through a science consumable fund that we have. But, this is the last year for this fund so I am brainstorming for next year. I can't ask the students to pay, but I can't pay that much myself either. I hate to do it in only one or two classes - the other classes just wouldn't think that is fair. Most students worked in pairs already, so even if I required everyone to work in pairs, it wouldn't cut the total cost by very much. How does everyone else pay for this?

Score Those Packages

2008-02-03T14:43:00.000-05:00

This is the best week! Hopefully packages have started to arrive at your school. If you haven't already done so, please visit the "How to" guide at http://www.gatesscience.info/teamescience/howto.htm and scroll down to "Receiving Packages." At the very bottom is a link to an Excel spreadsheet you can use for scoring. Send me only the school's scores when you think you have all of the packages. Remebr, I'm dealing with 132 individuals. DO send the scores to your partner school as you record them. These people are anxiously waiting for their results.

Enjoy this week and the next. Send me any images or anecdotes that you want, and I'll post them to your page.

Enjoy,

Charlie

Volume question

2008-01-31T09:07:00.000-05:00

Greetings! A student asked me a question about the way that the volume of the container will be calculated. He wondered if the package could be made of two distinct sections attached to one another: a container for the chip and an outer cage to protect it. Would the volume of the package be calculated as the volume of the outside shell (of the cage) or using the displacement method? Any input would be most welcome!

What e-mail?

2008-01-22T19:10:00.001-05:00

I don't know what happened! I went back and looked at all of the posts. According to me they all have two people receiving the e-mail. Therefore I have no way of knowing who didn't get what. Send me a note if you haven't received a message, and I'll copy the e-mail message and send it as a reply, or ask your partner school to do it.

Sorry about that!

Charlie

Pringles Challenge Laugh

2008-01-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

Two students came to me with a brilliant plan for the Pringles Challenge. They assured me they had tested their idea thoroughly and that their Pringle would NOT break in the package they would be using. Keep in mind these are two of the sweetest girls on the planet as far as middle school kids go. One of them pulls out a ziploc bag from behind her back and explains: "Mr. Williamson, we filled the bag with Splenda and put the Pringle inside." She then tossed it on the floor, picked it up, tossed it back and forth to her partner and said "See, it didn't break". My calm reply: "Girls, this is great, there's just one thing..." Puzzled looks on their faces..."Do you think it's really a good idea to send a ziploc bag filled with white powder through the postal service to another state?" Wide eyes, red faces and huge laughs from then on...One of my coworkers and I joked later when I told him they were going to be sent to Pennsylvania about the headlines "Pittsburgh Postal Service Evacuated...Mysterious white powder leaking from package originating from middle school in Newport, North Carolina"...ah, the joys of middle school!

Email?

2008-01-22T15:33:00.001-05:00

Help! I did not get an email???

Am I able to participate?

Sincerely, Mrs. Welsh
Fort Cherry SD

Begin!

2008-01-21T18:28:00.000-05:00

I've created 66 web pages, and sent 132 e-mail messages. I must be done! Now it's your turn. You should have received an e-mail from me entitled Pringles Partners with a #___ That should correspond to your pairing on the website. According to the timeline, no packages should be mailed until the 29th. Feel free to make other arrangements. Just be sure to let your partner know. Please do not send me any data until you have all of the packages from your partner. It was fun to update the packages with 15 schools or thirty schools. It won't be fun with 132! Speaking of your pages - I created one for every pair of schools. I made a stab at your school colors. Some websites actually gave the colors - thank you! Other colors were based on what the school website displayed. If I made a huge mistake, let me know and I'll change it. As far as I could tell, I only didn't include one person's name in my "Dear . . . " introduction. Don't take it personal Laura.

This has been a wild experience for me. I never had this many participants! PLEASE let me know if there are any other mistakes other than the "Dear Peg and Laura" slip!

Have a great time with this. Now I've gotta finish my grades before tomorrow!

Clear Skies,

Charlie

And so it begins!

2008-01-19T14:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, the partners have been selected. I hope I haven't made any huge mistakes! You'll be receiving an e-mail message by the end of Monday with your partner's name and address. Note, some of you may have more than one partner. Those are usually the folks who said they were sending 50+ packages. It's up to you to communicate with your partner school and set up any final arrangements. Be sure I haven't made any mistakes with the mailing addresses. If I have correct them with your partner. Also, I'm creating pages to receive your scores. If you have any images you want posted of either your students making the packages, testing the packages, or opening the packages feel free to send them. Before you do, check with your school on its policy for displaying images of student faces. If there are any problems, especially if you know that you can't send the packages, let me know, and I'll try to reassign people.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Excited to Be Participating

2008-01-16T11:53:00.000-05:00

We are glad we made it in by the deadline. Our 7th grade math teachers talked up the basic concept of the challenge last week. The kids were quite excited about it. It will be interesting to see who our partner school is. Thank you for your efforts in organizing this.

Another size question

2008-01-15T17:10:00.000-05:00

I see that the 3"x5" meant minimum size, right? Well, I have some students who have some containers smaller than that, like a travel soap container. Can these still be used? Will they be disqualified? They really do not want to have a lot of volume! Thanks!

A couple of questions

2008-01-15T13:09:00.000-05:00

Hello,

I assume the package sixe limit of 3"x5" is a minimum. Is this correct? Also, does the mass used in scoring include the mass of the chip?

Thanks

2008-01-15T08:56:00.000-05:00

This is our first year particiating and we are very excited. We met yesterday and made packages to send out as a test run.

Representing the Big Sky state

2008-01-14T17:05:00.000-05:00

I was excited to learn of the Pringles Challenge, and so were my students. I hope the represent Montana well.

Kids are excited.

2008-01-14T09:02:00.000-05:00

The students are excited and have many ideas. This is my first year in the program, but our school has participated for several years. I will learn more than the kids, I'm sure.

Very Excited, too!

2008-01-13T20:43:00.000-05:00

This is our first year participating in the Pringles Challenge. Our (Investigative) Science Club will be the participants. We are looking forward to the challenge as well as communicating with others across the country!

MrsH2003

Registration is Closed!

2008-01-13T08:01:00.000-05:00

Greetings! Well it's Sunday morning, so that means that our little group has been created. Last year is was bombarded by more than 30 schools doing the Challenge. This year we have 114 teachers in more than 100 schools! I'll be creating the pairs this week, but I can't guarantee that it will be done by next Saturday. I have a lab report and test to correct, and grades close Friday. It's the first time I've ever needed a snow day! I'll give you until Tuesday to change your mind about participating. I can feel the enthusiasm in your e-mails. There is nothing worse than not having a school participate. If for any reason you don't think you'll be able to do this, don't hesitate to tell me. Because of the large number of schools, I had to change the map. It will no longer have active links to your schools. To paraphrase "Jaws," the police chief says to the captain of the shark boat "You're going to need a bigger boat!" Well, I need a bigger map! The individual yellow dots have become smudges in some states. I've placed the active links into the school names located under the map. You'll start to see the pairings appear on the page, and eventually you'll get an e-mail from me with all of the information about your partner school. Please make contact with that school, especially if I've made a mistake with the address.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Cornerstone Academy says Hello

2008-01-12T23:35:00.000-05:00

We'll look forward to hearing which school we'll be judging. Does anyone have an Excel spreadsheet with formulas already programmed they'd be willing to send to me?

Erin Cook

2008-01-11T15:59:00.000-05:00

Hi, this is my first year to participate in the Challenge also. It looks like so much fun. I have 8th graders and invited some students to participate while requiring it of another class. How is everyone else doing it, as part of classwork or extra curricular.
RE: the plastic container.
I believe the formed plastic container for 20 chips will have a fairly high mass and a volume that will prove difficult to measure to 3 significant figures, therefore, removing itself from the packaging. So I'm letting my kids use it if they want. Inquiry, inquiry, inquiry

Packaging info

2008-01-09T19:10:00.000-05:00

This is my first year joining the challenge with my students. Just curious as to how the kids go about sending the packages. Do you incorporate having the kids investigate the post office to find out how they can send the packages? I don't know myself. Can you basically cover any container with a brown paper bag and send it by mail??? I just want to make sure I am sending the kids on the right path.

cc?

2008-01-07T19:31:00.000-05:00

Hello all!

This is my first year teaching 6th grade and the first year teaching in a departmentalized format (I'm not a Science teacher by nature). I do not know how to figure out cubic centimeters. Can someone help?

Pringles make a container for its chips!

2008-01-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

The teacher I am working with on the PC, just told me that he is aware of a container that was put out by the manufacturers of Pringles. The container holds about 20 chips and is "form fitting", made of plastic.

Just posting here so that we might all ban this container, or possibly have it incorporated into the rules that they are prohibited.

Mike

Welcome!

2008-01-03T05:47:00.000-05:00

The Challenge page had almost 500 hits yesterday! It could be a very exciting year. I'm using a new background map this year. The outlines for the states are barely visible, but the topographic features are modified. I hope you like it. The success of this project is based on your participation. Please only sign up if you know you will follow through and send the packages. If for any reason you find it necessary to not participate, let me know as soon as possible. There is nothing more disappointing than having a school send out packages not not receive a reply.

Please use this forum for any questions, comments, ideas! It will be my way of communicating with you, so please check in at least once a week to see what's happening.

Welcome, one and all. Enjoy!

Clear Skies,

Charlie Lindgren

The Scores So Far

2007-02-19T14:48:00.000-05:00

As far as I know I've posted everything that has been sent to me. Please go to http://www.gatesscience.info/teamescience/pringmap.htm and scroll through the list of schools at the bottom. Everyone with a potato icon before it has results. Let me know if there are any mistakes.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Final Results

2007-02-18T08:34:00.000-05:00

All of the results you sent should be posted by February 20th. I've been away. My daughter successfully defended her dissertation at the University of Chicago, and she's now Doctor Lindgren! Now I've got a lot of catching up to do!

Clear Skies,

Charlie

The Results are Coming in!

2007-02-09T16:27:00.000-05:00

If you go to the Pringles Map page and scroll down to the school pairings you will see a potato next to the schools that have results. The results are for the chips that the school in that column sent. Remember to send your results to me and your partner school as soon as possible. Once again, if you have any stories or images that you would like to share, I would be more than glad to post them. For those of you buried under tons of snow, or frozen out of your buildings, don't worry about the deadlines. Get them done when you can.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Any Extra Packages?

2007-02-02T17:45:00.000-05:00

I just received an e-mail that one school will not be able to send packages to their partner school. Does anyone have packages that they haven't sent, that they would be willing to send to another school? I'm looking for one of the schools that has a large number, so that the number being sent to their partner school wouldn't be that noticable. Or if you had straggler packages, and could send the late ones to this school, that would be great. Drop me a line at cflindgren@comcast.net if you can help.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Let the Mailing Begin!

2007-01-27T10:18:00.000-05:00

Beginning on January 29th you can start to mail your packages. All should be sent by February 5th. Open the packages and get the scores back to the schools as quick as possible. The students really want to know how well they have done! Send the scores to me by the 16th, and I'll post them to your pages. If you know that you are not going to make the deadline for mailing, be sure to e-mail your partner school and tell them that. If for some reason you are going to be delayed in opening your partner's packages be sure to let them know. I have a scoring template at the website in Excel. Go to http://www.gatesscience.info/teamescience/howto.htm Feel free to use it. If for some reason you can't download it, e-mail me and I'll send it to you. If you have any stories or pictures you would like posted to your page, send them along.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Images and Stories

2007-01-21T08:16:00.000-05:00

Hopefully you've made contact with your partner school and are getting to know one another. We love stories! Send me any anecdotes, digital images, etc. that occur during this process. If you send images, be sure you have permission from your school to have student's faces shown. Also, make them as low a resolution as possible to save disk space. Be sure you go to the map page and click on your school to see the special page that has been created for you. If you want anything changed, just let me know.

Partner's Contact Information

2007-01-15T13:09:00.000-05:00

I sent e-mail messages to all of the partners this morning. Three messages failed. The teachers from the R.A. Jones Middle School, Tri-County North Middle School, and Veritas School bounced back. I tried resending and they bounced again. Get in touch with me at clindgren@scit.org and we'll try to fix it so you know your partner's information, and they can have a reliable e-mail to you, the one I included in their message is obviously no good. As far as I know, all of the others went. You should now know your partners and have all of their contact information. Be sure to communicate directly with them if you have any questions or problems. Really enjoy this. Remember, I'm only an e-mail message away.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Partners

2007-01-14T16:30:00.000-05:00

Greetings! The selections have been made! Please go to http://www.gatesscience.info/teamescience/pringmap.htm and scroll down to the bottom to see the results. I did the best I could as far as distance and numbers were concerned. If you click on your school's name in the table you will see you unique page. I attempted to make it as attractive as possible. I grabbed mascots, logos, etc. from your sites. Please tell me if you want anything changed. Also be sure to tell me if I've violated any restrictions your district has on using information from your school's site. If I did, I'll remove it. If you have anything you want me to add to your individual page, let me know. Most importantly, if you do not see your school there, or if you know that you will not be able to do the Pringles Challenge, let me know immediately. As I've said before, the only disappointment that students get from this is not seeing their results. Each primary person will receive an e-mail from me with full contact information. This will be done as soon as circulation has returned to my hand (I've been at this a long time today), or if the Pat's game is terrible. Either way, you should receive the e-mail by the end of the day tomorrow.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Registration is Closed!

2007-01-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

There, that's done! We have over 50 teachers, and more than 2,000 students participating! This weekend I'll be pairing you off. We're having an ice storm here on Sunday, so that's probably when it's going to happen. I try to match distances and numbers together. Expect to get an e-mail from me by Wednesday with your partner's name, school address, and e-mail. If you don't, let me know right away. The first time I did this, I actually let my students make the matches. They did a great job, but I lived in fear of them missing someone, so I do it. If a mistake is made, meaning that one of you is missed, I want it to be my fault. Wish me luck.

Charlie

New participant

2007-01-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

Any advice from those of you who have participated before on how to get started? Also, how are you grading your students?

Thanks!

Container Size

2007-01-12T12:36:00.000-05:00

I know that the container has a size restriction of 3 x 5, but what is the other dimension? It may have been there and I just missed it, I don't want any of the packages to get disqualified for it.

New to Pringles

2007-01-11T10:19:00.000-05:00

Hi, I am an 8th grade science teacher in Rhode Island and I have never participated in Pringles Challenge before. I have a few questions. First, is there any recognition or awards at the end of the challenge...I ask because the students will ask me...not that I feel an award is necessary....Second, does anyone have instructional materials they are willing to share or good web links that you can suggest.....I'm kind of not sure where to start.

Thanks!
Michelle

Participants and Numbers

2007-01-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

You can view a a list of all participating Pringles Challenge 2007 schools as of today, not including those who are doing it, but cannot fit into our time constraints (you folks are on your own, and you know who you are) at http://www.gatesscience.info/teamescience/pringmap.htm. If your school is not listed, or your number of packages (not participants) is very different from what you see here e-mail me at the registration address, and tell me what's wrong. Also, if you know that you will not be able to participate, let me know. The only downside to the Pringles Challenge is if a school fails to participate. Let me know now and I'll remove you from the list. This is the largest number of schools we have ever had participate, and I am thrilled!

Charlie

Messages and Powders

2007-01-08T17:28:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting question about adding messages to the packages, and also about using powders as a packing material. There's nothing wrong with powders other than the fact that they add a ton of mass. You might want to add a note telling the school what the powder is. In these troubled times it doesn't hurt to be more careful. Last year we received some packages that were packed in a strange green powder. The packer had crushed the material that flowers are impaled in. When reduced to a powder, this stuff really looks strange.

Also, be careful of what you say in the messages. I'd limit them to what packing material was used, or if there are any unique methods students should use to open the remainder of the package. Don't say anything that could be misinterpreted!

Starting Pringles This Week

2007-01-02T18:44:00.000-05:00

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.

Let the Challenge Begin!!

2006-12-24T07:28:00.000-05:00

I have created this blog as a new way for me to communicate with you, and for you to communicate with each other. Feel free to share ideas, ask for help, whatever! I am going to use this as my major means of communication with the various schools, so even if you decide not to join the blog, or to post, please visit this site at least once a week to get any updates. I look forward to another exciting experience.

Clear Skies,

Charlie Lindgren