Wednesday, December 19, 2012

PlayWatch: ThinkSpace Stories

These observations of kids’ creative play and focused spatial thinking in ThinkSpace were shared by Museum staff and AmeriCorps members.

Soma Cube
  • Two brothers, ages 11 and 6, played with the Soma cube while their mother observed and told them to “think spatially.”  After the boys found a solution, their mom challenged them to find another one. 
  • A grandmother and a 4-year-old had a great time figuring out the cube: “It took patience but it was so rewarding!”

Mystery Mazes
  • A 6-year-old girl reported that she finished maze boxes 5, 6, 7 and 8 on her last visit and now wanted to do 1, 2, 3 and 4.  She was already on 3 and had lots of erasure marks on her paper from drawing diagrams of the mazes!
  • The mazes were a hit with an 8-year-old boy who really loves drawing; he made good use of the answer keys, comparing them to his diagram and trying again.
  • Devising a creative new challenge, a 7-year-old boy stacked two maze boxes end to end so he could get a ball to travel through both.

Shape Talk
  • A father and daughter took turns being the speaker and listener, laughing and cheering when they got their patterns to match. 
  • Another family – mom, dad and 10-year-old daughter – also traded roles.  The girl built a complex stacked structure and successfully described it so that her dad was able to replicate it.

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