Students in the 4th grade used the engineering design process to stop leaves from entering the pond during the fall season. Ask: How can we keep leaves from falling into the pond? When we began getting the pond ready for fall, we decided to focus on keeping leaves out of the pond. Imagine & Plan: Everyone imagined possible solutions. We shared our ideas with a partner and the group came up with four project ideas. They were: 1. Scoop leaves with a net. 2. Net cover. 3. Plexiglass. 4. Frame with covering. We voted on what to do, and there was a tie between "scoop the leaves with a net" and "frame with covering." We voted again, and "net" won. We decided to the test the "net" and it did not work as well as we wanted it to. So, we decided to build the frame with a net covering. Create: This is how we built the frame with a covering. First, we agreed on a design as a group. We wanted to build a frame with a net covering. Then we needed to measuer the pond to see how long it is. Evaluate & Improve:
We placed the frame and net covering on the pond and noticed that it did not fit perfectly as we imagined. The next day we checked the pond and found some leaves had gotten into the water. There was a gap between two pieces of net that let the leaves get in the water. So, we took the covering off and tied the gap together. That seemed to help keep leaves out of the water. However, we also noticed that the cover is propped up by rocks, leaving gaps where leaves can get blown under the frame. We haven't fixed that part yet. One more note: the pond covering will not work in a windy climate. Small pieces of mulch blew through the net during a windy storm. We will scoop them out. Comments are closed.
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AuthorThis blog is written by students at Cora Kelly. Archives
December 2021
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