If NONE of the mortars passed all three tests, what should we do to design our mortar? First graders came up with these four suggestions:
1. Find a new earth material that will pass all the tests.
2. Add glue to the mortar.
3. Add more water to the mortar.
4. Mix the mortars together.
After a long discussion about each suggestion, first graders came up with the following:
1. Finding a new earth material would mean a lot of digging. We can't do that! We're in first grade!
2. Adding glue to the mortar might make us sick...the wall is going near the vegetable garden and we don't want to take that risk.
3. Adding more water to the mortar would just make the mortar more runny. It reminded someone of what happens to sand castles at the beach when the tide comes in.
4. Mixing the mortars sounded like a feasible idea. We've already got the mortars, and mixing materials together to make a new material is TOTALLY something a materials engineer would do!
So today we spent practicing making combinations of possible mixtures....dessert style!
1. Find a new earth material that will pass all the tests.
2. Add glue to the mortar.
3. Add more water to the mortar.
4. Mix the mortars together.
After a long discussion about each suggestion, first graders came up with the following:
1. Finding a new earth material would mean a lot of digging. We can't do that! We're in first grade!
2. Adding glue to the mortar might make us sick...the wall is going near the vegetable garden and we don't want to take that risk.
3. Adding more water to the mortar would just make the mortar more runny. It reminded someone of what happens to sand castles at the beach when the tide comes in.
4. Mixing the mortars sounded like a feasible idea. We've already got the mortars, and mixing materials together to make a new material is TOTALLY something a materials engineer would do!
So today we spent practicing making combinations of possible mixtures....dessert style!