Building Begins

The students began their trebuchet projects yesterday, eagerly sanding their wood blocks and gluing down the first support post. This is one of my favorite projects of the year as it allows the boys to get a little dirty (mainly sawdust and wood glue) and physically create something.

So often children participate "once removed" from activities...Playing football on an Xbox, building on Mindcraft, playing music on Guitar Hero. My view of virtual activities is not a critical one, in fact their value is quite untapped at this point. However, we are seeing children that are less interested or able to create, build, problem-solve, and interact within a physical world simply because their access to it is decreasing.

The new concept trending now is the "return of the tinkerer," recently covered in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, to encourage creativity. While the idea of children in basements once again taking apart televisions insteading of simply watching them (I may just have heard a collective gasp from my parents at the thought of losing their Hi-Def) makes me smile, I do think that there needs to be a balance. Within my classroom I do not think that virtual and physical creation should be an "either/or," as our students have the capabilities to integrate both worlds, given the opportunity. In fact, wouldn't this convergence be the foundation for creativity?