Mango and Oreo Cookie's Castle/Maze/Race Track Part 2

The first time we put a live guinea pig into what we were creating, we decided to just have Mango (she is older and more experienced-I apologize for the lack of pictures, my hands were full with a guinea pig.) We discovered she did not want to really move at all.

“Is she scared?” asked Jamin. “Maybe she is really nervous to move.”

“You know, we are being really loud. Maybe we are too loud. I don’t think she likes it when we are so loud.” Marcus added.

As we let Mango explore, we talked about how to be safe (making sure our shoes were not stepping on her,) what might help her move (food was a suggestion, so the students put food in various different places to see what happened) and that she might need walls.  For the next few days, the students worked to make the walls higher (so the guinea pigs couldn’t escape) and became quite creative in how the maze was structured. They also made it higher to look like the Frozen castle.

“Maybe we should try the guinea pigs again.” Arunika said one day.

“Remember we have to be quiet and not walk around because we want them to be safe, right guys?” Audrey added.

The students found spots around the castle/maze/race track and I brought out Mango and Oreo Cookie.

Look, look! They are exploring! Where do you think they are going to go?!” asked

Florence.

“They are so so smart, they are not getting stuck in the corners!” Siddharth added.

The students watched Mango and OC explore very respectfully, tried out food at

the very end and both guinea pigs made it!

The students are in the process of trying to record their questions and next steps.

Mango and Oreo Cookie's Castle/Maze/Race Track Part 1

“Hey look! There is a castle in the Maker Space!”

Samay found a castle puzzle with no pieces in it that someone had put in the Maker Space to recycle. This amazing find became the provocation for our guinea pig project.

Many of the students gathered around Samay to look at what he found, and then seemed to burst into 10 different directions. Some students went and started immediately building a castle out of wooden blocks, others went to look for the puzzle pieces that were missing, still others went and found castle books, and Violet quietly went over to Mango and Oreo Cookie our guinea pigs and stared intently at them while drawing and writing.

“You know, Mango and Oreo live in a cage, imagine what they would do in a castle!” Violet wondered out loud.

“We should make them a castle like Elsa and Anna live in!” Renee said.

“And special clothes to dress up in!” Olivia and Scout added.

Again there was a flurry of activity while students scattered to make a castle, make clothes for the guinea pigs and watch what the guinea pigs were doing.

“Look what I drew. Quick! Take a picture of it! Really quick! It’s a race track. The castle should have a race track.”

Lachlan had come over from his table to provide his input.

“Yeah, and a bridge for them to go fast on, right?” said A.J. “We can use these things.”

In a couple of minutes, students were using wood, cardboard boxes, cardboard pieces from the art room and tape to build.

The students used a lot of tape to hold the materials together, and then tried to figure out where they could get pictures of race tracks, castles and mazes. Together we looked for books in the library, printed off pictures that we found on the internet, and we found videos of other guinea pigs going through mazes. We then tried using the ipad to film the pigs while it airplayed up on the big screens (of course there had to be some dancing when the students realized they could see themselves!) We then had to try the castle/maze/race track with Mango and Oreo Cookie.