I learned that...

One of our morning centers today was a science experiment. Students worked together to build a ramp and try to figure out how to make the cars go the farthest. This is such a fun center to watch. Everyone starts out so confident in their knowledge that higher is obviously better, so they build the ramp as steep as possible and try and try.

When it doesn't work very well, they hypothesize: Well, that one didn't work because there's other stuff in the way. That didn't work because it's a tractor and has something in the front. Let's try again. But eventually, they did figure out that maybe the ramp had to be adjusted back down... One group turned the ramp around because they thought the shinier side would work better.
At the end, I asked what they learned and this is some of what I heard.

"If it's too low it doesn't go and if it's too high, it just crashes.
If it's in the middle it goes farther."

"3ish or 4ish blocks are best."
"5 was best."

"The lighter car went farther. I thought the heavier one would go farther, but it didn't."

Our other centers included journal writing,
transportation,
and some reading activities, including the twisty cup word families