Submitted by dresch on
After a role-play interpretation of the way transportation has changed over time, students develop their own unique transportation designs using LEGO bricks. Exploration in the LEGO Travel Adventure exhibit, a trip to the interactive toy car assembly line, or a transportation scavenger hunt throughout the museum collections may be added to enhance the experience.
Lesson extensions for before or after your visit
The following activities are designed for your class to enjoy before or after your museum visit. Familiarizing students with the lesson concepts can enrich your museum experience.
I’m going on a trip…
Hone listening and thinking skills by playing I’m Going on a Trip, a familiar group game that uses a form of alliteration to help players focus on initial sounds of words.
Have one student start by saying (or singing) that they are “going on a trip to” a particular place of their choice and that they will take with them some object that starts with the same letter as the place. For example, “I am going on a trip to France, and I am going to bring a football.”
Have successive students take turns adding to the list of objects being taken by thinking of other things that start with the same letter sound. For example, “I am going on a trip to France and I am going to bring a football and a frog.”
Continue playing, while repeating the answers already offered, until students can no longer think of new words to add.
Sink or float
Using tin foil sheets and a dishpan filled with water, challenge students to design boats that can not only float, but hold the most pennies. Start by having students break into pairs. Give each pair three 10-inch by 10-inch sheets of tin foil and a handful of pennies. (Small classroom items such as crayons or paperclips may be used in place of pennies.) Ask each pair to make three different stable watercrafts—one sheet of foil per boat. How many pennies can each boat hold? Which pair designed the most stable boat? Ask the class what made the strongest boat most stable. Discuss with students their personal challenges creating with different materials outside the classroom.
Survival
Divide the class into four groups. Give each group 30 minutes to discuss the top 10 things that they would use from the classroom to survive together on a deserted island. Have students list these items on an easel. After 30 minutes, allow all groups to walk around the classroom and read the other groups’ lists silently. Have groups reconvene and discuss any changes that they would like to make to their original lists. Finally, have each group present their lists to the class. Ask each group why they selected their particular 10 items. Look for similarities and differences in reasoning in each group.
For other ideas visit:
http://pbskids.org/zoom/games/goldburgertogo/rubegame.html
