Over the past year, the children have had a number of opportunities to consider the mathematical properties involved in turning a verbal concept or two dimensional drawing into a three dimensional structure. Outcomes have included everything from a custard cream synagogue to a dry stone wall frog castle (a.k.a Frogwarts).
Today we couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to make use of the recent snowfall to put our design and construction skills.
The challenge was set. Girls v Boys and one hour to build a snow shelter.
After a quick discussion, each group set to work. The girls chose to work on traditional igloo design whilst the boys went for a cuboid structure. Team work was needed to ensure the building progressed successfully and by lunchtime, the structures has really begun to take shape.
The girls' team encountered some problems when attempting to make a roof for the igloo. The plan was to gradually move the blocks inwards with each course to create a domed top. However, we found that the blocks were not holding sufficiently to achieve the desire effect. We agreed that if we were to build another igloo, we would have laid the blocks with the largest side touching each other rather than the shortest length as we had done. This would have made the walls thicker, allowing us to gradually move the blocks inwards as we worked higher and enable us to graduate the blocks from deep set ones at the bottom to shallower ones at the top.
We thought about other materials we could use to construct a roof for our igloo. First we tried pine branches, but we did not have enough of these to bridge the gap over the top of the dome. So we used the branches instead to line the floor of the dome in order to provide some insulation.
One of the girls suggested we use a tarpaulin to cover the roof. The finished result, though not a traditional igloo was certainly very cosy!
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