Brrr... It's cold in Thomas County and in Garrison-Pilcher Elementary School Makerspaces last week it was a little chilly, too! First and second graders created ice walls out of marshmallows and sticks and then watched to see if their ice wall could withstand the avalanche/glacier that came through the library. Students activated their prior knowledge about the continent of Antarctica, various types of weather conditions, and states of matter.
A video of Antarctica featured examples of glaciers and ice walls.  To further encourage their thinking about these frigid features students gave their predictions on how the ice walls were formed, what would happen if the ice walls were too thin, and why they think the ice wall would work better if it was thicker. Once the avalanche happened, students had to then tell why they think their ice wall stood up or what they should have done differently if the ice wall fell down.
"The entire time the students were completing the activity, they were discussing why they were building the wall a certain way. They were fully engaged and super excited at the end when it was time to test out their creations," said Elexis Griffin Garrison Pilcher Media Specialist.  

Captions:
Dean Mathis, Paisley Sneed, and Trey Forgille work on their creations with Speech-Language Pathologist Saundra Singletary while Van Cato assists Kev'Yana Proctor and Corey Thompson at another Makerspace station. Cato said that their favorite part was when the avalanche came and knocked their walls over. 

Makerspace creators Jewelliaunna Brown, Hunter Beasley, Angeliyah Wells, Christian Mickens, and MaryGrace Cannon carefully choose combinations of sticks and various sizes of marshmallows to construct their own ice walls.