At first, the boy was a bit disappointed. The vehicle that he and his partner had designed to meet a challenge had collapsed under the weight it was taxed with carrying. With determination, however, he and his partner went back to the drawing board. They would employ their new-found knowledge of what didn’t work to uncover a solution.
Effective teachers know how to reach boys in ways proven successful by research. Certain elements of instruction engage boys’ attention, sustain their concentration, result in superior performance, and resonate with the unique ways that boys best learn: Boys need to move. They like competition when it’s friendly. They enjoy teamwork. They love to create products that serve a purpose.
The Wheel and Axle project in fifth grade science is a great example of how Saint David's faculty incorporate these elements, called transitive factors, into their lessons. For this challenge, the boys must design and construct a vehicle out of a variety of materials: sticks, straws, spools, binder clips, etc., capable of carrying 500 grams of weight without buckling, while using the least amount of force. To execute their designs, the boys follow the engineering cycle: identify the problem and define constraints, imagine a solution, plan their design (blueprint), create their product, test it, and improve it.
Boys have a great deal of agency throughout. They are encouraged to try different design concepts, to employ their critical thinking and creativity. Through the iterative process of testing and improving their vehicles, they come to a deeper understanding of the underlying science and can express the rationale behind their design decisions and choices clearly and confidently. “We put triple layers of masking tape on the underside of our vehicle to make it stronger, reinforce it,” explained one boy. “We want the car to use less force because that makes it a more efficient vehicle and better for the environment,” said another.
In short, the boys truly comprehend why something worked (or didn’t) and can leverage their thinking to push forward into creating something new.
At the end of the class, the disappointed boy and his partner tried a new design, which provided more fortification and a wider base of support. Voila. The car carried the weight without collapsing. The boys were ecstatic; more important, they understood why their first design had not worked, but this one did. Because of the way that the lesson was structured, they would retain their newfound knowledge. They also learned a most important lesson for science and for life at large: that failure very often is the mother of success.
