Klutz: Lego Chain Reactions: Design and Build Amazing Moving Machines

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Students can now take turns sharing their ideas within their groups. Once all of the ideas have been shared, each group should select the best idea(s) to make. Be prepared to help facilitate this process to ensure that the students choose something that is possible to make. What is a chain reaction? How many parts does it need to have? How do the parts work together? By gravity? Using a moving element? What type of chain reaction would you most like to see? How many steps would it have? How would it end? Students test and evaluate their designs against the design criteria they recorded before they started making their solution. Encourage the students to share their learning process. Provide them with the opportunity to share their thinking, ideas, and reflections using the documentation tool(s) they have available. As part of your lesson preparation, find a few inspirational images or illustrations to share with your students as they are reviewing the Maker brief and defining the problem that they will solve.

Use craft materials that you already have in your classroom to add another dimension to this lesson. Some materials could be: Reinforce that students do not have to come up with the whole solution from the start. For example, they can begin by investigating different parts of a solution or a specific function of an element before focusing on the overall solution.