Stimulated by the suggestions
of BBS VII in Braunschweig, a nursery school teacher at Saint Monika
Kindergarten Luedinghausen got to work on building of a marble-slide machine in
her institution. Contrary to the BBS VII plan however, not the entire
construction was built by the children. In order to make the machine as sturdy,
durable and childproof as possible, the basic construction – a cabinet, into
which the different levels were built later – was constructed by the nursery
school teacher in cooperation with a specialist. Thus, lean periods and
frustrating experiences in particular for the younger children could be
avoided.
Also, the childrens’
attention should not primarily be directed to the cabinet, but towards physical
questions concerning the force of gravity and centrifugal energy. Why does a
marble roll down, but not - or only under certain conditions - up? How does the
circuit have to be constructed if you want the marble to run uphill? Which
marbles can master a longer hilly stretch; which influence has their weight,
which their speed? How does a marble behave, if the nails in a curve are set
too far apart? For experiments in connection with these and other questions the
guided phases as well as the free play phases offered sufficient time and
space.
Observations of the nursery school teacher concerning the gender
question can be summarized as follows: In the respective guided phases boys and
girls were equally motivated, interested, and involved. In free play phases -
without the motivating influence of the nursery school teacher - the girls put
emphasis on using the marble-slide, thereby playing with their gender specific
toys, for example by letting dolls use the elevator. The older boys on the
other hand had been stimulated by the guided phase to dedicate their free play
phase to construct independently and to master technical tasks. You can draw
different educational conclusions from these observations. Do girls need female
models and regular encouragement in order to turn to technical questions and
develop their technical skills in everyday life? Or does one leave it at the
fact that girls take part in the guided phases? If girls introduce their gender
specific interests and toys to a game, how should the nursery school teacher
take this up?
Activity
2: Experiments with a push pull cable
Activity
4: Trying the first levels of the marble-slide machine
Activity
5: Making and installing a nailtrack on the bottom level of the machine
Download: marblelh.zip
Contact:
Richard-von-Weizsäcker-Berufskolleg,
Lüdinghausen/Germany