Post #7 Problem Solving Skills

As an engineering major, I've done quite a few problem solving activities over the years. I always really enjoyed them, and I think that problem solving activities teach kids a lot of valuable lessons for the real world. For this reason I will definitely try to include some problem solving activities in my future classroom. One activity that I remember doing as a kid and really enjoying was called "balloon race". We were divided into groups of 3 or 4 and each team was given...
* a roll of masking tape
* a balloon that had not been blown up
* a drinking straw
* a 20 foot piece of fishing line
* a pair of scissors
The instructions were that we had to figure out how to get the balloon from one end of the room to the other. There was a piece of masking tape on the floor near one wall of the room and we would not be allowed to touch the balloon after it crossed that line. (Therefore, the balloon needed to travel 10-15 feet without anyone touching it!)
I can definitely see myself using this activity in a 5th grade classroom. It could be used when teaching simple physics, but it also teaches valuable problem solving skills because the students are required to solve an ill-defined problem. It is considered ill-defined because there is no single correct answer. However, this is the case with most real world problems, and it is an important skill for students to learn. The activity also requires meta-cognition because the students will use their prior knowledge of how straws and balloons work. However, the students will need to get creative in order to figure out a good way to solve the problem. Below is one example of this activity and one possible solution.
Balloon Race Activity
Below is a great article I found about how to encourage problem solving in young children. It talks about the importance of providing young children with open ended materials and giving them time and space to practice problem solving. It also listed the steps for problem solving as...
1. Identifying the problem,
2. Brainstorming a variety of solutions,
3. Choosing one solution and trying it out, and
4. Evaluating what has happened.
Problem Solving in Early Childhood Classrooms