The Winning Classrooms Have Been Chosen! Thanks to all the great classroom entries that we received for this year's Classroom Challenge. Because of our excellent application in the classroom, the 2011 K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge was a great success in classes across the country.
Congratulations to the winning classrooms listed below!
CH Homeschool — Grade 1 Teacher: Abby Marold Category:A House for Teddy Description: My house has one floor. My house has three square windows with wide shutters. The big door opens and closes. The fan spins by a motor to keep my bear cool.
Grace Homeschool — 2nd Grade Teacher: Grace Kay Dick Category: A House for Teddy Description: Father Bear parked the Bear Mobile convertible on the garage. Then he and Little Bear went through the front entrance and into the living room. After a long day it was nice to relax in front of the warm cozy glow of their fireplace. Father Bear got out Little Bear's bedtime stories. After reading a chapter Little Bear went upstairs to his bedroom. On evenings like this Father Bear goes out onto the deck to look at the starts. In the morning the sunlight shines through five big windows waking the teddy bears from their dreams.
The bears hurry down for breakfast. The dimensions of my house are 45" long, 25 ½" wide by 32 ½" tall.
Central Park School for Children — 3rd Grade Teacher: Judy Compton Category: Towers and Skyscrapers Description: For our skyscraper we looked at different types of buildings and decided to build one with a rectangular bottom. We made an elevator to help people get upstairs. We built the elevator shaft first for structural support. Then we added more supports so the building wouldn't fall. We designed and built a working elevator that uses a pulley system with a counterweight. We added wind turbines for electricity and a satellite. The building has a lot of supports and space for rooms. We added sunrooms on the sides for more support.
We love K'NEX and we love designing and building! And testing!
Tyndall Youth Center — 4th Grade Teacher: Stacey Sanders Category: Towers and Skyscrapers Description: We built the Twin Towers because we were shocked by the wreckage on September 11th, 2001. After this horrible tragedy, America as a nation was broken in pieces. Every year since we were born we have all seen and heard the many memorials and observances. September 11, 2001 will be a day America will never forget. In our K'NEX creation, we used strictly K'NEX pieces only. Our colors consist of red, purple, yellow, blue, green, orange, and white.
The towers are equal in height and measure 5 feet 3.5 inches. Our towers also have wheels to be transported from room to room to share and remember with all. Among our creation we have added an elevator to transport items and people as needed. Connecting the two towers on the bottom is a sidewalk.
A top of the towers is also an antenna measuring 7 inches. We hope you enjoy our K'NEX creation. Let's all remember September 11, 2001.
Riverbend Elementary School — 5th Grade Teacher: Amanda Nortrup Category:Chilean Miner's Rescue Description: There are many similarities and differences between our K'NEX model and the real rescue. Some differences are that our model only has three buildings; they had many more. Also our structure has lots of support around the "hole" where the real thing didn't have much.
Our crane is frames into a house-like structure, but the real device is more simple. Some similarities are that our capsule doesn't have much space for the miner and that we are using a crane method as did the people of the real disaster.
The capsule we built also has a similar cylindrical shape.
Glenfield Middle School — 6th Grade Teacher:Courtney Washington Category: Chilean Miner's Rescue Description: The rescuers faced many challenges, as we did. The main purpose of both inventions (which have a pulley, stand, motor and capsule) is to rescue miners. This took many steps. First we made individual capsules and stands. Our capsule and distances differ with theirs
(less than one pound: nearly 1000 pounds, 5 inches: 33 centimeters, 29.5 inches: 2000 feel below, respectively). Next, we combined our ides. Our finished product has matching colors (including our wonderful discovery, limited gold K'NEX)!. While seeking the perfect
angle of inclination, we changed our pulley system measures to complete our invention.
K'NEXpert Classroom Prizing:
$350 Shopping Spree in 2012 on K'NEX Education Building Sets at www.knexeducation.com
FREE age-appropriate K'NEX building set for each child in the winning classroom ($20.00 value)
2011 K'NEXpert Classroom Challenge Plaque with photo of winning model and students.
Classroom photo gallery page on knexeducation.com, where we will display pictures of the winning classroom students with their model.
Teacher: Abby Marold
Teacher: Grace Kay Dick
Teacher: Judy Compton
Teacher: Stacey Sanders
Teacher: Amanda Nortrup
Teacher:Courtney Washington
