Lesson Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: Maggie Gudgel

Instructor: Dawn/ Terri George

School: Frey Elementary Grade: 1st Grade

Lesson Topic: A-MAZ-ing Lego Magnet Maze!

This was the student’s favorite lesson; truly the entire lesson went well! The
students really loved getting their hands on the Lego pieces. The students
were instructed to build a Lego maze using all pieces! They worked to build
a maze and then their partner had to solve their Lego maze by getting the
magnetic marble to the exit side of the maze. The students had to use all
piece, have an entrance and exit to their maze also. Some of the students
realized quickly that they needed to reconsider the construction of their
maze to ensure an entrance and exit without running out of pieces. I was
very impressed at the ability for some of my students to quickly construct
intricate mazes out of Legos! Some of the kids produced an advanced
product that the other partner(s) attempted several times to correctly
solve. The students used a magnetic wand to hole under the maze mat and
they tried to move the magnetic marble from the start to the finish exit of
the Lego maze. The kids used math by regrouping the Legos and recounting
to make sure they had the ten Legos sorted into appropriate groups. We
discussed about various number combinations we could have used with our
Legos incorporating numbers to 120. As a class we counted the stack aloud
by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s. For the hook, phenomena of this lesson the kids
observed a K’NEX rollercoaster toy in action. Then, we discussed how the
toy words and why the train car stayed on the track. The students
absolutely loved this conversation and connections to their own
experiences such as Six Flags Amusement Park rides. I could see that my
kids understood magnetism while moving their marble throughout the
course. They understood that the magnetic field grew weaker as they
retracted the wands further from the marble. I was impressed that my class
took the activity seriously, trying to rebuild and increase the difficulty of
their maze for their partners to solve. This lesson directly involved inquiry
because the students had to construct, build, create, design, test and solve
their product! This cause students to work together through the science
engineering process to obtain an understanding of magnetism! Students
love Legos, and immediately attracted to the appeal of this fun lesson. My
background knowledge helped achieve success of learning content because
I had the supplies and instructions organized before the start of the lesson. I
had grouped the kids and had materials neatly laid out for efficiency of
instructional time. I went thought the 5 E’s in this lesson and the class ate it
up! They talked about extending this lesson at home using more intricate
Lego kits and other objects that could work (paper clips etc.) I knew that my
students understood the learning objective by the product, and also their
conversations and findings of magnetism in the maze lesson. When I have
the opportunity to reteach this lesson, I would like to have a few challenge
cards that could extend this lesson into incorporating technology. I would
like the students to create an I-Movie recapping the lesson experience. It
would be neat to have the kids put music and labeling behind the scenes of
their building/engineering process. The students could also use the I-Movie
to reflect on how they felt when solving their partner’s magnet maze.