Duration: 30 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Critical thinking
- Valuing people and nature
Brief Description:
Teams compare to the model, name one geometry insight, one strategy insight, and one stewardship takeaway.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Develops critical thinking through comparison and evidence-based conclusions
- Strengthens valuing people and nature by reflecting on resource use and responsible choices
- Supports resilience by recognizing growth and effort
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
As a result of this activity, students will be able to:
- Critical thinking: compare their pyramid to the model using geometry words and one cause–effect explanation.
- Resilience: name one challenge they overcame and how they handled it.
- Valuing people and nature: state one stewardship choice they made (reuse, fewer materials, careful planning).
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Use geometry vocabulary to describe 3D structures
- Reflect on design choices and outcomes using evidence
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Teacher model pyramid
- Reflection sheet (geometry + skills reflection)
- Optional: “gallery walk” labels (Team A, Team B…).
Preparation notes
Prepare reflection sentence stems:
- “Our pyramid is similar because…”
- “It is different because…”
- “We improved by…”
- “We wasted less by…”
Guided Questions
- “How is your pyramid similar to the model?”
- “What did you change from Trial 1 to Trial 2?”
- “What did you learn about the base and the name?”
- “How did you use materials wisely?”
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- “What would you do first if you built it again tomorrow?”
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Challenge: Students only say, “ours is better/worse.”
- Tip: Require one “because” sentence with evidence: “It leaned because…”
- Challenge: Some students don’t want to mention mistakes.
- Tip: Normalize: “Mistakes are data.” Ask for “one lesson learned” rather than “one failure.”