I was also needing another way to work simple machines into my class. I had been using a photo tour of the Dr Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, TX, but alas, it is no longer a part of the Dr Pepper family- another rant of mine. I could still teach the lesson with the bottling plant, but not while I'm in a rage over it. I would only get off track and lose focus on the simple machine part of the lesson!
So, back to working in simple machines... I knew the kids were interested, but I wanted more than a slingshot for this experience. My idea was to have the students come up with a new way for those Angry Birds to attack those pigs. Since I want them to have a hands-on experience, they would build the simple-machine-based contraptions for a live action version of the game using recycled materials. Each group's machine would become a challenge in our classroom Angry Birds game. The little round birds and pigs easily transferred to old playground and tennis balls!
We began the project by, of course, playing Rovio's Angry Birds game on the iPod touch for about 10 minutes. I felt we had to have a common experience to build from. This was probably not necessary for the majority of the students. 2/3 of my students may or may not have had a personal electronic device (phone) on their person that already had the game loaded. I did see ONE student showing another how to play, so it did catch them up! After our timer went off, we discussed what the birds and pigs were able to teach us besides how to kill lots of time.
Then we listed the simple machines and began coming up with possibilities for new game plans. After that, the groups were off. Their job was to scheme, er, design and build.
After a CRAZY week with the project (good and bad), we had 6 challenge stations ready for our Angry Birds Live test. The sixth graders made these, now they would play all the stations!
Next week, we bring Angry Birds Live to my fifth graders, who will play the games to begin discussions about force and motion!
