Y3: How the World Works - Structures

Y3s are almost done week 2 of this unit.   The main focus is structures with the central idea that the design of structures involves consideration of the role of forces, materials and environmental factors. Health and safety issues such as stability and the forces that impact on the strength of a structure are main topics.

To get students thinking about what influences a structure, I showed them pictures from "If you lived here: houses of the world" by Giles Laroche.   The illustrations, both detailed and appealing, gave colourful visual provocation for this unit of study.

Image taken from gileslaroche.com

Video taken from this link on youtube.com

I showed students illustrations from this book, but covered the text explaining the location and the tradition of each. 

I then called on 4 students to give different answers to guess which country it was and why.  Before giving the answer, they had to explain why they suggested the country of their choice.  According to students, they based their guess from the pictures on:

- the weather and the terrain around the structure

- the ethnicity of the people and what they were wearing

- designs and patterns on the structure

- the materials used in the construction of structures

- letters and symbols written on buildings

Some students had also visited the country and recognised some structures from their travels.  Venice, Italy with it's famous canals and gondolas were one of them. 

It was interesting to see students' thought process, reasoning and prior knowledge and experience in action for this lesson. It also engage other students to participate and elicited much discussion when I revealed the answer.  For this reason, it was a good provocation to sustain their interest in how and why structures are built in different countries.