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Elementary Science

Butterly Wings

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Lillian Muller Lillian Muller 2255 Points

First and foremost, I found that this lesson requires a lot of critical thinking from students; I really enjoyed this aspect of the lesson. One of the aspects I really liked about this particular lesson was the teacher based a lot of the information off of prior knowledge and then building on top of said information. I think that this is really important because it allows for students to understand and retain the information more efficently. Essentially, students created their own butterfly wings and were attempting to assess what aspects they could change to either make the butterfly go higher or longer distances. The teacher encouraged students, but many groups had an 'ah ha' moment on their own; they came to understand that different weights and angles would cause certain outliers in their numbers. This is the main reason I took interest in this lesson, it forces students to critically think and collaborate with their peers.

One question I did still have after reading this was what role does the fan actually play in this lesson? The article says that it is for students to understand when the scale reaches negative numbers, it represents a lift. My assumption is the lesson its self has more than one concept, those being that weight, angle, supplies cause different flying abilities of the butterfly and a scale can reach negative numbers; representing that scales measure up-wards. While these two concepts work hand and hand, I think that it could be a lot of information to process at one time. Personally, I feel like that could be the biggest con of this lesson, if your students are not 'advanced enough' it could be difficult for students to gain a proper understanding. 

Tina Hamilton Tina Hamilton 12515 Points

I am excited to try this with my students! Is there a set of instructions for constructing the stands? 

 

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