1st grade as Materials Engineers!

1st grade has been learning about the best materials for creating a wall.  We analyzed different materials and discussed their "stickiness" factor as it related to keeping stones and tiles together.  We tested different materials and different combinations of materials to get the very best recipe for the mortar for our walls.  After we carefully built the walls in teams, we patiently waited for them to dry.  Then the big test day -- to see how they held up against the wrecking ball!  It was very exciting!

Materials Engineering is fun!

Getting a closer look.

Checking out the properties of dry materials.

Checking out the properties of wet materials.

Ultimate mortar test!

Mortar can be messy!

Future Engineers recording their results.

The Sticking Test - How did the mortar stay together?

The earthquake test!  How did the mortar hold up?

Here's our recipe for mortar and our plan!

Our plan for our wall!

Recipe for Mortar and the big plan for the wall!

Look at all these walls!!!

Wall creation in action!

Making walls is a bit messy!

Sometimes you have to get messy to get the job done!

Messy, but fun!

The big day -- the Wrecking Ball test!