Lesson Plan:
Pipe Construction
Learning Objectives
Students will learn how to put pieces of pipes together to make a structure.
Introduction
(5 minutes)- Put on a play construction hat and invite your students to circle time to construct a super structure.
- Read a book about construction that shows how things are put together to make a structure.
- Tell students that today they are going to be construction engineers and build a structure out of plastic pipes.
Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling
(10 minutes)- Bring out the box with the pieces of pipes and connectors.
- Show students how the connectors attach pipes together.
- Caution your students about watching how they connect the pipes so as to not get their fingers pinched.
- Construct a structure with a few pipe pieces and connectors. Start out with a simple structure and when they gain more confidence, more complex structures can be designed.
Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling
(10 minutes)- Hand each student a pipe and a connector.
- Go around the circle, having students add their pieces one at a time until all students have contributed.
- Give assistance to struggling students.
Independent Working Time
(10 minutes)- Divide students in to small teams.
- Have the teams build simple structures together. Allow them to think where to affix the pipe using the connector.
- Tell them it is okay if the structure falls down because it allows them to think of a better way to fix it.
- Provide suggestions if necessary. Ask the teams to use the pieces in a new way to see if the structure will hold up.
- Listen to their conversations to see how they are trying to solve problems.
- Ask questions to get them to think about a better solution.
Differentiation
- Enrichment: Encourage students to build a vehicle, like a scooter. Ask students to see if a structure is more sturdy with a wide base or narrow base
- Support: Struggling students can make more simplistic structures. Alternatively, they can build small structures to work like a marble run, making the marble or small ball move from one end to another.
Assessment
(5 minutes)- Observe and take notes as the students are working on their own.
- Make a note of issues that come up in their conversations, and how students solved them.
- Ask questions on what the teams are building and how are they are ensuring that their structure won't fall apart.
- If you have to provide a lot of assistance, it means more practice is needed.
Review and Closing
(5 minutes)- Ask students to join you for group time.
- Ask them questions about how they worked to build new things. Encourage them to talk about their structures and how they made it work.
- If you noticed some areas the students struggled in, go over those concepts.
