Cup Challenge

It's the first full week of school, so that means that we're doing introductory things. Luckily, in science, that means we're doing some fun team things. 

I am also scrambling, of course. I've been working on getting seating charts made and gradebooks set up and the classroom organized so I can focus on the teaching and not the keeping up with everything else. Luckily, there are two other seventh grade science teachers, and we're all doing the same stuff. And they've been making sure I have what I need to keep the lessons going. 

We started with a cup stacking challenge. I found a video that shows what they were doing rather than trying to explain...

The video shows challenge one. There were ten. Various configurations.

We're still in the "honeymoon" phase of the year, so I wasn't too worried about the kiddos going crazy. They dove in and for the most part tackled the challenges well. 

But, of course, some groups finished more quickly than others.

What do seventh graders do with six cups, a rubber band, and nothing to do? 

Again, it's early in the year, so it didn't go as badly as it could have. 

Throwing cups is better than them throwing the cups at each other. (That was the point when we moved on to the next item on the agenda: going over the syllabus. They were bored, but they didn't fight me on it.) 

So far, I'm accomplishing my assignment. In case you were wondering, I have one main goal: don't let the kiddos go feral. At the moment, they're behaving like a typical seventh grade class. I call it a win.