Building (math and science) Knowledge

There are different types of knowledge. To know how a square is defined is different than knowing how to identify one. These are different that knowing how to draw one with ruler and paper. Or construct one with compass and straight edge.

A square is a pretty simple example, but when it comes to ramps, bridge, exploring mass and rotation, there’s being able to answer questions about it, and then there being able to build object to create examples, non-examples, and solve challenges. And it can help to have the right tools.

My office recently got a set of Keva Planks. Now, I’ve gotten to see these blocks in action a number of times and they are pretty cool. First, there is almost no learning curve. The blocks are all exactly the same. There’s no connecting pieces or fasteners or adhesive. There’s nothing to them. But with them you can build ramps and towers, polygons and prisms. They set up easily, the clean up easily.

Full-disclosure: They aren’t free. (Cheapest place I’ve found them is Amazon… 400 blocks for $90). Ordinarily, I don’t make a point to advocate for expensive tools, but in this case I think it could be money well spent based on the needs of the location. Also, they are durable and shareable. One department or grade level team could probably make good use with one to share.

Anyway, it’s worth looking in to as they allow us to explore types of knowledge that we otherwise might not be very well equipped to explore. (Particularly with those Next Gen engineering practices that are starting to become a reality in many states.)

For another look, here’s my latest podcast: Instructional Tech in Under 3 Minutes #5 – Keva Planks.

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The Blue Man Group did high school physics teachers a favor.

A nice engaging intro to your unit on sound waves.

And as an applied project, perhaps students could make a smaller version. Paper towel rolls? Saran wrap? rubber bands?

Anyway, a lot of possibilities when a video is this well done.

Why “maker” seems so appealing…

In the education world, “maker” as a vocabulary word seems very trendy, but the thought behind it really isn’t new. We learn by doing. We do by creating. The ability to create within the content requires connections among a variety of different related content pieces and often testing and trouble-shooting which are themselves tasks that require pretty significant understanding.

So, it shouldn’t surprise us that creative activities seem valuable from a learning standpoint.

What is significant is how satisfying they are for our students… 0r at least the advocates would have us believe. I was able to be a learner today in an all-day session regarding maker-style learning and this quote by Mark Hatch certainly got my attention.

“Making is fundamental to what it means to be human. We must make and express ourselves to feel whole.”

A Google search of the quote revealed a second part of the quote:

“There is something unique about making physical things. The things we make are like little pieces of us and seem to embody portions of our soul.” (Quote found here.)

That’s a pretty powerful statement. There aren’t a lot of areas of education that will evoke words like “soul” and phrases like “fundamental to what it means to be human.”

And it makes sense. Let’s remember that each of our students (and each of us) were CREATED. We were literally made by a MAKER. And we are not just made, but we are made specifically in the image and likeness of that maker. We are created to be creators.

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’ ” (Genesis 1:26) This quote, by the way, is uttered just after God the Creator had made the universe and everything in it. Our Lord, Himself a maker, created humans and said “Let Us make them in Our image…”

So, it should not at all be surprising that a day spent making is much less likely to feel like a day wasted. Perhaps our souls recognize that the time spent making is time that is bringing us closer to the image in which we were created. Time spent being who God made us to be. A chance to be our best selves.

And isn’t that our job as educators? To help our students be their best selves?

Maker Geometry – What can blocks do for you?

So, today I got to play with blocks called Keva planks. A set of Keva planks are nothing more than a whole bunch of congruent wooden rectangular prisms. You can build towers, mazes, bridges, and… of course… geometric shapes.

So, a task came to my mind. Let’s suppose we were going to take the planks and make the smallest possible cube.

1. How many planks would we need for the combined widths to match the length of a single plank?

The answer’s five, by the way. So, each face is 5 planks wide (which is a single plank long)

Looks kinda like this…

So, naturally… now we can calculate stuff. Like surface area and volume. But to do that, we’ll need some numbers.

So, in my haste,  I clearly did a lousy job of lining up the blocks on the measuring tape. Sorry about that. Not exactly a deal breaker, but annoying.

But since maker materials are becoming more common, I figure you might prefer your students pull their own measurements.

There are a couple of ways that I could see variations of these: different shapes (different kinds of prisms, for example). I could also consider challenges like, given x-number of blocks, who can build a figure with the largest volume or a flat shape with the largest area?

Keva blocks seem like a low-risk, high reward manipulative simply because the start-up would be so quick. What could you do in your class with a set?