Ed Home (text) - TRC Home - sciencelines IndexConstructivism: An Educational Strategy
Submitted by Pat Franzen, teacher at Madison Junior High School, District 203, Naperville, IL
Construction and the Three Little Pigs
Assuming that small children do still bring this schema into the classroom, even a pre-kindergarten teacher can construct excellent science experiences based on nursery rhymes and children's stories. Possibilities include: Humpty Dumpty (egg packaging - a mini-great egg drop), The Three Little Pigs (have children construct houses of straw, wood, and bricks), and Charlotte's Web (observe spider web construction).
The Constructivist Movement within the discipline of science coincidentally can be modeled by the "construction" of a long-loved children's story, The Three Little Pigs. Via this story, students can learn fundamentals of architecture, physics, math (measurement, etc.), language arts (story construction extensions), and a myriad of other connections.
Grade Level:
- Pre-Kindergarten through early elementary
- Objectives:
- Students will design and build model houses made of straw, wood, or brick (stones)
- Students will hypothesize as to the results of a variety of class-designed tests of the structures built.
- Students will test the structures and discuss their findings, determinng any flaws in designs (or their thinking). Self-analysis.
- Materials:
- Copy of the story
- Basic materials as deemed appropriate. (Allow the children to bring in the majority of the materials.)
- "Wind makers," e.g., fans, blow dryers, leaf blowers, etc. (TO BE USED ONLY BY ADULTS.)
Procedure:
- Read and discuss story.
- Present the challenge:
- You (students) have been asked by the three little pigs to help them build a better house. That old wolf is still lurking in the forest, and the pigs need safe places to live. Please help them build the very best house you can build with the straw, wood, or bricks (stones). Think hard about new ways to build a really strong house.
- Test each design with the "wind makers" using the gentlest device first - possibly students' best candle blowing efforts. (Remind the children that the wind may indeed "blow the house down," but that this is an important part of the experiment.)
- Discuss the results. Facilitate student analysis of the experiment. Refer back to "guesstimates" documented earlier. Are there any surprises?
- Ask student groups to explain how they constructed their models while "the remains" are still present. Have them analyze their efforts. What worked well, what didn't?
Follow-up Questions:
- What might you have done differently? Why?
- Did anything really surprise you about anybody's model?
- Are there any times that real people have their houses blown down? (tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, etc.)
- How might we build our own houses so they will be strong against wind?
- Why don't skyscrapers get blown down easily?
- What was the most important thing you learned?
Extensions:
- Change the variables - different materials, water instead of wind, different type of structures.
- Draw a picture or compose a story about the surprises in the experiment.
Possible Resources:
- Barbaresi, Nina, illustrator, The Three Little Pigs, Merrigold Press, NY, 1981.
This is the traditional story of the Three Little Pigs. Other illustrators are also available.
For some humorous versions and other perspectives on this traditional story consider the following:
- Scieszka, Jon, Lane Smitth, illustrator, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! by A. Wolf, Scholastic, Inc., New York, 1989. (ISBN: 0-590-44357-7)
- Trivizas, Eugene and Helen Oxenbury, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1993. (ISBN: 0-689-50569-8)