3/14/04

The Pipe Project started around the middle of last month when I was in a teacher supply store. I found a marble game there consisting of a number of plastic pipes that could be fitted together to construct a marble machine. I had made marble machines as a child using the tubes that are left over from paper towels and toilet paper. The idea was to tape them together in various configurations and then drop a marble in one end and wait for it to come out the other end. The game that was for sale cost about $60. It occured to me that you could buy a whole lot of PVC for $60.

I immediately went to Home Depo and began to get smart about PVC. A 10' length of 1/2" pipe costs just a bit less than a dollar, and the fittings are sold for various prices ranging from 20 to 90 cents. I bought eight pipes and a couple of bags each of elbow, T, and coupling fittings. The bill for the materials was less than $20, and I also bought a pipe cutter for $10.

When I got back to work. I cut the pipe into 2", 4", 6",12", and 24" lengths. I assembled some simple structures and found the pipe inviting to play with. It was easy to fit together and disassemble.

When the students arrived, I let them play with the pipes on their own to see what they would make of it. They enjoyed having something new to do. I gave them the task of constructing a tower that could stand without falling over and reach all the way to the ceiling. Working together, they were eventually able to construct a structure that met my simple specifications.

In the days that followed, I tried out a number of different projects to see what would result. I had one student construct a self-standing arch that was big enough for the student to walk through. After the student completed the construction, I had the student deconstruct and sort the parts that had been used, then I had the student determine the cost of the structure using a price list I had made that listed a price for each part. Because the pipe lengths were not marked, the student had to figure out the sizes of the different lengths of pipe by measuring them against each other. Finally I had the student remake the arch using fewer pieces to see how much money could be saved while still meeting the specifications.

I had a group of students construct a four-sided structure that one of them could stand inside without touching any of the pipes. After they had built their structure, I had them each figure out the cost of the materials they had used. In retrospect, it would have been more useful if I had had them check their answers against each other's calculations first before I checked them. I used the opportunity to have one of the older students see how Excel could be used to do the calculations.

I also tried out a plumbing project that involved the use of little wooden houses.

The students were to provide water and sewage service to as many houses as possible making sure not to get the pipes going into the houses confused with the pipes that were going out of the houses. Two different pairs of students tried this one with two very different results.

I went back to Home Depo to see if I could find a fitting that would allow for free movement so a structure could be made that could either swing or spin. I found a solution in a 3/4" t-joint with a 1/2" adaptor that connected to the t-joint at a 90 degree angle. I gave a couple of students the task of making a swing for a stuffed killer whale. The only specification was that the structure had to swing the whale without falling over. This was their result:

I am currently working on formal projects that provide progressive levels of reward for constructing projects that have increasingly sophisticated specifications.

3/20/04

Yesterday I tried out several pipe construction projects that I had written up earlier in the week. Each Pipe Project has a junior, intermediate, and senior level with increasingly sophisticated requirements. I had the students try out some of the junior-level projects to see if they could create a result that met the specifications without any additional directions. The session was instructive. The fact that even the junior level project specifications require students to solve a problem that could have a number of possible solutions was a source of anxiety. One student exclaimed, "I am as dumb as a stump when I have to do stuff like this." After a few false starts and lots of encouragement on a Pipe Project that called for making a four-sided construction that was four feet high, this was the result:

It was interesting to watch this student go about solving the problem because the thought process that was going on was made explicit as the pipes were joined together. Something that seemed very obvious proved to be a solution that had to be discovered by hard thinking. After the student had constructed the bottom and put together the pipes so that the construction was four feet tall, the problem of how to have them all connect at the top was not self-evident. At the end, the student finally figured it out.

Another student was able to construct a 4-foot tower that had a pentagon at each end, but it took quite an effort to figure out how to construct an pentagon with the available materials. This was the result:

Another project was to construct a 6-foot tower that could stand by itself. Here are a couple of solutions that the students achieved:

I gave one student the task of making a construction that had a part that could swing freely. This proved to be quite a challenge, but success was eventually achieved:

I am planning more projects that benefit from what I have learned watching the students solve the problems that I have written up so far.

4/2/04

Had a conversation with Sean who is in charge of landscaping at the EAH properties in the South Bay. He told me that he had a whole lot of spare joints and could get me more 1/2" PVC pipe at wholesale. I put in my order and today he dropped this off in my office:

I got busy cutting up the pipe into 36" lengths. I cut the pieces that remained into the lengths that I had cut earlier.

Several of the pipes had enlarged ends so that they could be joined together without using a coupling joint.

One happy surprise was a 3/4" T joint that had a 1/2" side.

The only way I could find a joint that would allow the 1/2" pipe freedom of movement at Home Depot was this:

Not an elegant solution, but one that worked nonetheless. The 3/4" joint with the 1/2" side makes it possible to make a construction with a part that can swing:

Today, one of the students tried to complete the "Windmill" project. The construction had to have a part that could spin freely. This was the result:

4/13/04

Had a working holiday last Thursday and Friday so that I could put in some quality time on getting caught up on what I have been doing with the learning projects. Here are the handouts that give the specifications for the Pipe Projects that I have written up so far. More are in the works.

Pipe Parts

Four-Sided Skyscraper

Pentagon Skyscraper

Plumbing

Space Station

Swing

Tall Tower

Windmill

5/25/04

One of problems with the pipe project has been having the pipes out in the open. It was just too much of a temptation for the students. They would all want to start horsing around with the pipes rather than do a project. One thing I learned from running a summer camp is that it is far better to place a clear physical restriction on something rather than try to enforce a rule about how something is to be used. I went to the TAP Plastic store and got a red and blue bucket to store the pipe parts and then cleared a space in the built in cabinet in the room to put them out of sight.

Now if you are going to do a project, you have to get the buckets out of the closet. Simple things like this really make a big difference in how things are done.