Nonverbal Learners

Students who are identified for our TAG program at Clarke often have a strong score in nonverbal learning. What is nonverbal, you ask? It boils down to the way that my students see the world. What connections do they make regarding the events around them? Do they see patterns that others may miss? How can they express themselves with hands on projects verses traditional work?  Due to this strength, I try to provide opportunities for the students to build and creatively problem solve often. 

Introducing the egg tower challenge; immediately my students thought they were building a way to drop an egg from a height and have it stay whole (admit it, you sort of thought this too). However, it was actually the opposite.

Challenge Rules:

1. You may use as much newspaper as you can get your hands on and an arms length of tape. Nothing else. 

2. You must work with at least one other person (communication is a key skill!).

3. You must build the tallest tower that will hold an egg at the top for at least 15 seconds. 

4. If we have a tie for height, the tower that stands the longest will win. 

Students were given a class period to construct their towers and plastic eggs to test. They also had to take into account that a plastic egg would weigh less than a real egg. Many students were creative in how they would test the weight (rocks, pennies, etc).

 

In the end, our towers ranged from 9 inches to 50 inches! Most of the students were not successful on their first shot, but they learned from their errors and tried again! 

As they walked out of the classroom on the testing day, I heard, student A say, "I wonder what challenge she will come up with next?"

Student B replied with a smile, "You know it is going to be something that makes our brains hurt!"

I love my job.