Systems of Things - Things Come Apart and Are Rebuilt

After we took apart the flowers and created something new, we spent part of the week coming back to the conversation about systems. What systems do they notice around them? What are the rules for that system? Does that system work well, or does it need to change? What changes would you make and why? We talked about everything from flowers and gardens to our classroom community. When we started talking about the rules in our classroom that guide our community interactions, the students were able to share the parts of a "pandemic classroom" and parts of a "pre-pandemic classroom" that worked or needed fixing. From some of the comments, it was apparent that it was easier to share their thoughts and feelings about what they were going through at the time (the stresses, joys, high points, low points) through the lens of the structure of school.

Our next hands on work was to take apart a small man-made item and figure out how it worked. We started by looking at the book Things Come Apart by Todd McLellan. If you haven't explored this book yet, I highly recommend it. There are lots of photos on his website as well to explore:

After examining some photos and thinking about what the object looked like when it was whole, the students each chose a small object that they were going to take apart. We thought that it was important for each child to have the experience of using specific tools and have the experience of thinking through how something was put together so they could take it apart.  We used the Parts, Purposes, Complexities routine again, discussed various types of screwdrivers, and started to work. 

Students dove in with enthusiasm. They were slightly frustrated that they couldn't help each other (since we were still asking students to distance from each other), but they figured out how to help each other through complex conversations and hand movements. 

After the students wrote about and shared what parts they found in their item and how these parts worked together to make the item as a whole work, they then had to make something else. As a class, we explored some recycled art ideas. (TinkerLab has a great article about this idea.) Thankfully, our science teacher had a box of "extra stuff" that we could borrow. The students loved being able to incorporate other parts into their creations, which they couldn't do with the flowers. 

As they created, they were thoughtful about how to build something new and which supplies to use to make their creation. They also took lots of inspiration from their own interests to tell a story with their objects.