January 10th, 2023

continuing our dream house project ...

​We were excited to finally share the amazing materials we gathered over the past few weeks. Thank you to everyone who donated boxes, recyclables, packaging material and more! To encourage open-ended exploration, we had all the items arranged on our large construction area table. The children's thoughts immediately jumped to our current classroom project :
​

I think this is for building our dream house. It’s many houses together. - Hugh
This is all good for building. - Finlay

Design, Planning and Brainstorming Phase:

After we discussed some of the many potentials of the materials together as a large group, we began to split up into our small teams to shift our focus to individual rooms. 


Today we would like to highlight some the process the UNDERWATER ROOM team went through, from their first drafts, brainstorm session, material ideas and collection to the construction of the room model.


​Below we would like to share the transcript of our first "team meeting" that happened in December. One of Cate's first room designs was used to further inspire and guide our ideas during the conversation. 

Can you see the connections between our first ideas and our constructed model?

​
​Diving into our construction phase:

The underwater room team, consisting of Cate, Luke, Finlay and Cape, chose a medium sized clear plastic tub as a "base" for their room model. In the process of creating detailed decorations and design features, we kept referencing and reflecting on our initial ideas from our first brainstorm session about the under water room. ​

​Cate and Luke had the idea of adding a treasure chest to our underwater room and throughout the process of deciding on the perfect item they considered its size (Too big, it doesn't fit in here. - Finlay), material (They’re made out of wood and a little bit of metal - Cate), color (There’s one problem. It’s clear. They (treasure chests) are black and grey because they’re old. - Finlay) and function (It doesn’t open. It needs to open. - Finlay). 

They decided on a small clear box with a hinged lid to which they added slim and short wooden sticks.

​Finlay creating “Arrangements” of shells and fish beads on green round bases

I’m gonna put this under water so when the people go in they think the fish are swimming in it. - Finlay
In the seas around Manda I went snorkeling and the water was really green. - Cape

​But what about the coral reef? What about a pile of these (marbles)? - Cape

​This was the color of the coral of Manda. And that's the first coral I saw. - Cape, reflecting on his recent trip to Kenya during Winter Break

​During our initial brainstorm conversation, the children chose sandpaper as the material for the ground, which the children agreed on being covered in sand, but realized in the process that
​"It will get wet and then it would break" (Finlay). 

Comparing the properties of different pieces of sandpaper:
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Cape: It looks more like dry sand.
Cate: It gets darker because there’s water on it.
Finlay: And water can turn dark.

Luke thought about a possible solution for our "sandpaper problem":
We can use real sand! - Luke

This is so satisfying. - Finlay, pouring in the sand to the clear tub. 

​For our seaweed we explored a new material - polymer clay. Which is at first malleable and soft until you bake it in the oven. "Then it turns into like a plastic toy? That's so cool!" (Hugh) "And then it's waterproof" (Cape)

"You just roll it on the table because it's (the table) is hard" - Finlay
"It's like wrapped up like a snake." - Michael

Discussing buoyancy of different materials:

It needs to be attached so it doesn't float to the top. We could tape it to the ground? - Cate
It should be light. - Luke
Light things go up (float). Like a leaf. (We need) Something heavy, like bricks or jars, rocks. - Cape
Shells - Cate

Considering permanence and stability of their model when choosing the best adhesive:

And we’re gonna glue it? Because what if there’s a strong current? It’s gonna wash away. - Cape
Guys, hot glue dries fast. And it’s really hard. - Finlay
But what if in the water it disappears? - Cape
That’s the great thing about hot glue, it doesn’t dissolve in water. - Ines

Caves are kinda black and grey. We could paint it? - Cate
We need black. - Cape
And white to make grey. - Cate

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​It looks just like on the beach! - Luke 
It's gonna be really fun doing this. - Cate
Wait, are we really gonna put real water in it? I'm gonna freak out. - Luke