The Ideas Box

Have you heard about the Ideas Box?  Awesome sauce!

Let me start at the beginning...Just over a month ago, I was asked to check out and share my experience with this box.  (Read all the way through to find out how you can get your own box free!)

So, what is it?  It's a box filled with materials to teach engineering to students in grades 4-6 (although I was able to modify a few things for my third graders).

Here's what comes inside of it!

Did I mention that it's FREE!!!!!!

First of all, just getting any box makes me feel like it's Christmas.  I love opening goodies!  The box contains posters, teacher's guide with reproducibles, and a Dyson Air Multiplier.

Confession - I am not going to lie, I stuck my arm through the middle of the air multiplier just because I could.  (I am not the only one; many other people did too!)

Here's a peak at some of the things we did.

Students drew what they thought an engineer looked like.

Many of my students were unfamiliar with the terms engineer and designer.  (Note to self: make sure to work on science vocabulary with students.)  We started the unit with some pre-lessons to make sure the students understood these concepts.  I thought it was incredible that when my students drew pictures of what they thought an engineer looked like, many drew adult versions of themselves.  How cool is that?

Another activity my students completed was finding pluses, minuses, and interesting parts of different products.  I loved how they were really thinking through their answers.  This helped them develop their critical thinking skills.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to complete everything in the box.  There were so much to do and so little time.  The end of the year goes by way too fast.  (I guess that's a good thing!)  Next year, I need to request this box earlier in the year.

So how can you get your own box?

The Dyson Foundation will ship this box for your classroom completely FREE of charge!  Click here to get more information.  They send you everything in the pic on the top of the page.  All you need to do is return the Dyson Air Multiplier using the box everything came in as well as the postage paid shipping sticker.  

The only problem with this box was that I couldn't keep the Dyson Air Multiplier!  That sucker is seriously cool!  I want one of my own!