The Year 5 class was given a Maths task to create a Marble Run. The criteria was straightforward, but all needed several particular angles included in the design. Students worked together in pairs on the design phase. Pondering over the endless possibilities as to where their marble could go, they all settled on a plan and collected resources to achieve their goal.
The students then set out on the most important part of an activity – the planning!
Initial plans were thoroughly thought through and problems were identified and changed during this stage. We drew our plans down on big sheets of paper and discussed them with the teacher and others around us. We thought about the materials we were going to use and then gave Ms V our lists of supplies. We also set about collecting things from home to make our Marble Runs even more awesome.
The first building session was clearly a lot of fun! (albeit a bit messy). The second and third sessions didn’t get any tidier. It looked like the class had been attacked by cardboard. We all had different approaches to the building and attachment of things to our boards. Some of us realised that we needed stronger supports as bits fell off at times. This was a little frustrating, but excellent for our problem-solving skills.
All of us achieved our goal of having our marbles run through with very few problems. After we completed our tasks we were able to time our marble runs.
Marble Runs make Maths fun!
