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Disassembling Toy Cars: Unlocking Big Lessons for First Graders!

Disassembling Toy Cars: Unlocking Big Lessons for First Graders!

First graders in Jen Garvey’s technology class recently embarked on an exciting and educational Take Apart Lesson as a way to exercise their Agency by Design thinking method. This hands-on activity encourages students to explore complexity and uncover how objects and systems work, providing a fun and meaningful opportunity for exploration and discovery.


As part of their year-long essential question, “What is a community?”, students focused on disassembling toy community vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. These vehicles, vital to any community, served as the perfect tools for sparking curiosity and understanding the intricate designs behind their functionality.


The activity followed a structured "See, Think, Wonder" approach:

  • See: Students began by observing their toy vehicles. They felt the textures, pushed and pulled the cars, and made initial observations, noting details like the number of wheels, colors, and how the vehicles moved.
     
  • Think: Building on their observations, students thought about the mechanics behind the cars. Questions like, How does this car move? and What might be inside? led them to hypothesize about components such as gears, motors, and batteries.
     
  • Wonder: Finally, students asked bigger-picture questions like, Who invented the first wind-up car? How many ways can you make a car move? These wonderings opened the door to broader discussions about design, engineering, and innovation.
     

After observing and hypothesizing, the students carefully took apart the vehicles to see the inner workings up close. This process of deconstruction allowed them to explore the components responsible for movement, further fueling their curiosity. By playing with the disassembled parts, they gained a better understanding of how these systems operate through their observations—giving them a glimpse of the concepts that they will revisit and deepen as they advance in the coming years through technology class.


“These Take Apart lessons aren't necessarily about explaining why the cars move—but about providing students with an age-appropriate, hands-on experience,” said Garvey. “In later grades, when they encounter more advanced science concepts like potential and kinetic energy, they’ll be able to draw on lessons like this and already have a sound foundation on inner systems like the ones in these wind-up cars.”
 

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