Post 6- Leonardo da Vinci

This past Friday was my last time teaching at Vineyard Elementary. It was bittersweet. I've grown close to these students and to their teacher who has been so helpful and awesome and engaged! I just wanted to say thank you to all of them! They were so great and hardworking.
For my last lesson, the students were getting into the middle ages in Social Studies. To understand one area of this time period in particular, we chose one artist from the Renaissance to talk about. Of course, we chose Leonardo da Vinci. After learning briefly about his life in the middle ages as a painter, sculptor, botanist, anatomy expert, scientist, and architect, we focused on mainly his inventions.
They learned that in his later years, da Vinci worked for France developing weapons for their army. He came up with early concepts for the helicopter, airplane, tank, and crossbow. We looked at these blueprints to discover his thought process. We identified that for each invention, there was a problem he needed to solve. With the tank, it was getting people onto the battlefield without getting hit. It's basically a moving turtle shell. With these thoughts going through their heads, I passed out a problem to each group. They were given this problem, then told to create an invention to solve the problem, painting a blueprint as a team. They were so creative!
Here's an example of a problem: There is a boy who likes to go play with his Frisbee in the park after school every day. Pretty often, the Frisbee will get stuck in a tree. He can't get them down however, because he's afraid of heights. So he can't climb the tree, or bring a ladder. Invent something that will help him get the Frisbee down without making him go up!
The solution the students came up with for this problem was something they called the "Super stick" it was a glove with a pole coming out and a hand on the other end. This pole was thirty feet long, and could fold up neatly in their backpack. The hand on top could flex it's fingers by doing those same motions in the glove down below.
My goal for this lesson wasn't for the students to create working inventions. I wanted them to stretch their creativity muscles. I wanted them to brainstorm and work in groups and create. And they did so well! At the end of the time, each group presented their invention to the class and answered questions about them.

 These guys were working on a rapid fire snowball maker!

This group made a backpack rocket that could carry a tired girl and her Great Dane home after a walk.

 Here is the group who made the super stick!

                           

     And these students were making a backpack 
                                                                                         bear repellent for nervous campers.

Here are several groups presenting their inventions to the class. They all did so well!









I just wanted to say again how much I appreciated these students. They worked so hard and stretched their minds in great ways! And to their teacher, Miranda. Thank you!
I'd also like to express my appreciation for everyone in the Arts Bridge program. You all made this so fun and fulfilling and possible! Thank you for everything!
-Amber Arnoldsen