It has been a mantra for years at Sabot that “The story of
one child is the story of all children” meaning that by focusing in on one
learning experience helps us understand more about learners in general. I think
it could also be said that the story of one bridge building group is the story
of all bridge building groups. By telling the story of one group, we hope to
highlight the type of thinking and work we see going on in all. While all
groups’ experiences are not identical,
we see common threads of planning, building, testing, communicating, learning
to let go and revising. We see each group needing to come to the question of
what is best for their bridge. Below is a story of revision.
One group was given the assignment to build a bridge that
went from the bottom of a cliff up to the top. After working for a while, the
group had finished their first version. As
they tested it, they noticed that it wasn’t really working very well. It wasn’t very stable and it collapsed
easily. The car also had to drive almost vertically to the top of the cliff.
Eventually the group decided to scrap that idea and began to
build bridge number two. It was really solid, but also REALLY heavy. There were
several other design features that the group wondered about. It wasn’t a very
smooth ride and there was the potential for the road to flip over off to one
side.
While waiting for group members to finish a critical part of
bridge number two, one group member designed a new tile inspired from things he
had seen in other groups' designs. The new tile incorporated the X shape the
children had noticed so frequently on our field trip. The new tile was sturdy
but also light, much lighter than a similar sized section of their current
design.
 |
| We got curious and measured the new tile and a section of design number 2. There was a 21 gram difference. |
Many of the team members seemed to instinctively understand
that this new tile design was going to be useful but without even a conversation
about changing or without a concrete plan of any kind, three members of the
team sat down and started making one tile after another. It was interesting that
even during their work they mentioned how they were NOT going to use these
tiles. Eventually, when they had made as many as they could, they showed their
work to the rest of their team. There was instantly a unanimous decision to
switch to a third plan…. well almost. There was one child who had been very
invested in the making bridge number two. It was four against one. They reminded the one
teammate that if put to a vote they would easily win, but the team also seemed
to really want consensus so they continued discussing rather than voting.
It was interesting to
see how much of the negotiation skills that had emerged during The Game
resurfaced during this work. After finding the group in deadlock, I was able to
bring them back to times in the game where explaining the thinking behind the
changes they wanted to make had actually helped to change the people’s minds.
Back in the bridge group, each side started to explain what they thought was
best and why. As soon as they put less attention on who had made which
pieces and more attention on what was best for the bridge, the group quickly came
to an agreement to start completely over again with a third design. They
commented several times about how they couldn’t believe they were starting over
AGAIN!!
As a side note here I stop to applaud bold decision to start again.
It is not easy to let go of things they had labored over for days. What a courageous move. I admire the tenacity.
As they thought about how to connect the tiles, the design changed AGAIN. They went from separate square tiles to pieces all connected into a long road.
Within fifteen minutes they had a single span large enough
to reach floor to cliff. Light. Strong. Stable.
They put the finishing touches of railings and an anchor at
the top. In a fraction of the time they had created a bridge far superior to
either of their previous designs. But would they have been able to do it
without the experience of the previous two models? Their new found skill had
emerged from the work that had gone before. It was actually their failures that
had created this new design.
We talked about the journey of this group together as a
class, reflecting on the process of revision and how it links to our guiding
question “What do good engineers do?”
Noah: When we were first doing our bridge, one of the
reasons we decided to make a new one cause … if you touched it barely it would
all fall. You didn’t even have to put your car on it, it would just fall
anyway.
Nora: One time I touched their old bridge and it literally
just went voom [ shows collapsing hands]
Ella: You need to try over a ton of times to actually get it
right.
Teacher: What if they were on their first version of their
bridge that wasn’t really working very well?
Will: We would not have a lot of progress.
Lydia: Now like everybody is working on it. Last time some
people were working on it but some people weren’t. Then the next time nobody
was working on it but the third bridge is everybody working on it.
Ian: I think they made a smart decision to rebuild because
if they stuck with one bridge and you just tapped that bridge it would go
pshhhhh [hands show a bridge
collapsing].
Teacher: It was more work…
Jesse: But it paid off in the end!
Will: Like the writing… the editing your story.
Ian: Like the writing and revising…. you did so much work
and it is really… you don’t like it, but it is better in the end.
Teacher: I see a connection. With the more bridges they were
building, the faster they were getting at trying new things. I think that is
what is going to happen with your revising in writing too.
Will: We kept on getting faster at building.
