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Overview: Children are formed into groups to 'invent' a pretend machine that smashes marshmallows. Each child plays the role of a cog or part of the machine to move the marshmallow along. Children then read the story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, a machine that digs its way to a happy ending, and recognize how technological devices affect our lives.
Booklink: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton, Sandpiper Houghton Mifflin Books, 1967. ISBN 0-395-25939-8
Science Activity Link: Children design a marshmallow-smashing machine in which each child plays the role of a machine part (a cog), moving and making a sound.
Objective: Children will recognize and describe that machines are technological devices that do things for people, that they are a system composed of parts, and that recycling is an option we all need to consider and practice.
Science Processes and Content: Processes-observing, inferring, communicating, and model building. Content-systems and subsystems, form and function, properties of objects and materials, position and motion of objects, technological design, and recycling resources.
National Science Education Standards: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2) Physical Science, (5) Science and Technology, (6) Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, (7) History and Nature of Science
Materials: Book Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, one bag of marshmallows, powdered sugar, and paper towels
Procedure:
1. Begin this lesson by organizing the children into groups of 5 or 6. Tell them that they are going to become a 'marshmallow-smashing machine' and that each child will become a 'cog' in the machine, one that has a specific job to do. Each child is to do something (movement and sound) with the marshmallow as it is passed through the machine. For example, one child or cog may receive the marshmallow, make a whizzing sound while tossing the marshmallow from one hand to another and turning to hand it to the next cog. Another cog may make a popping noise while jumping up and down and passing the marshmallow along. Still another might make a 'splat' noise while flattening the marshmallow between his/her hands. The roles of each cog can be decided upon by the children, modeled by the teacher, or distributed as descriptions on pieces of paper.
2. Give all the children 15-20 minutes to get organized and practice their machine movements and sounds. You may wish to have the children name their machines, e.g. the 'marvelous marshmallow marvel' or the 'marshmallow pancake maker.' Stress that the marshmallow must by flattened when it comes out of the last cog in the machine.
3. Have each group of children demonstrate their machine for the class. The teacher or some other person may want to 'feed' the marshmallows into the machine or hand them one at a time to the first cog. After the first cog passes the marshmallow along, another marshmallow can be fed into the machine and still others fed in succession. To keep the marshmallows from becoming sticky it is best to take them out of the bag, spread them out, and expose them to the air for a day or two. If they are still sticky, have the children pat their hands with a very small amount of powdered sugar before handling the marshmallows. Of course, the marshmallows that are passed among the children should not be eaten.
4. Now read the story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and discuss it with the children. Have the children point out the parts that make up the steam shovel, recognize the many jobs such a machine can do for people, that Mary Anne is really a technological device that people invented to do jobs for people, recognize and describe other machines (pencils, autos, toasters, hammers, bulldozers, computers, etc.) and the jobs they do for us, and what, how, and why things, like Mary Anne, get recycled
Related Books:
Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions by E. L. Konigsburg, Alladin Paperbacks Simon and Schuster, 1991. ISBN 0-689-83202-8
Wheels by Annie Cobb, Random House, 1996. ISBN 0-679-86445-8
Up Goes the Skyscraper by Gail Gibbons, Harcourt Brace, 1986. ISBN 0-15-307533-3
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