Preface

 

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?

 

 

 

Overview of the activities

 

Activity 1: Experiments with marble-slide elements, cardboard tubes and hoses

Activity 2: Experiments with a push pull cable

Activity 3: Making tracks from nails

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

Rvw-bk-lh@kreis-coesfeld.de