Thirty-Five students from the Parkland Middle School Scholars Program, led by team leader and teacher, Bruna Genovese, took on the challenge of building a chain reaction at KID the other day. Using everyday materials and objects like cardboard, wood blocks, cooking molds, foam, masking tape and rubber bands, they set to work.
A chain reaction is a series of events, each caused by the previous one. That means the Parkland students had to practice teamwork, while brainstorming and implementing new ideas. The students used wooden tracks to make marbles run, added tunnels made out of toilet paper, created bridges made out of wood, and even designed a wind turbine made out of a hot glue stick attached to a motor!
The Parkland students quickly realized that if their design was going to work, communication was essential. They also discovered that a chain reaction involves a lot of trial and error. Often, the chain would get derailed somewhere along the way, and a team would have to figure out what went wrong and make corrections. After five hours of steady work, you might think the kids would be ready to throw in the towel. But at the end of the day, they wished they could keep going.
