Summer is upon us and fun days will be spent hanging out at the pool. We were inspired to engineer a diving board based on the book “Jabari Jumps”, by Gaia Cornwall.
Preschoolers will be inspired to use the provided materials to create two diving boards for a toy. This engaging STEAM experience will challenge your young learner to use their critical thinking skills and think like an engineer.
STEAM QUESTION: Can you create a pool with two diving boards?
Objective: Students will design and create two diving boards of different heights for Jabari and friends.
Materials:
- “Jabari Jumps”, by Gaia Cornwall
- Small plastic tubs of water
- Towel or tarp under the tubs of water
- Variety of blocks of different sizes and materials
- Recyclable materials
- Paper, crayons, and scissors
Teaching Strategy:
Read, “Jabari Jumps” and discuss the student’s own experiences with pools and diving boards.
Invite students to create two different diving boards, a tall and short one.
Allow students to draw their designs using paper and crayons.
Give students time to create, test, and improve their diving boards.
Guiding Questions:
Have you ever wished there was a shorter diving board?
What can we build or create to help Jabari and his friends feel more comfortable for their first jump?
How tall are your diving boards?
STEAM Experience:
Science: Students can drop different items into the pool from the two diving boards to observe and compare; consider also dropping items of different weights for extension.
Technology: Students will use tools to create and measure their diving boards.
Engineering: Students will build two diving boards of different heights.
ARTs: Students will draw a picture of their plans before building.
Math: Students can measure how tall their two diving boards are.
The full Storytime STEAM experience is inside the member lab, click here for more details.
Looks like a really fun STEAM activity for kids. I am sure kids would love it, thanks for sharing and explaining it so well!