Following are two short narratives, like the ones found throughout Science Stories, that illustrate the use of the MST approach in actual classrooms.

Story 1
An MST Unit on Ants: Inside a First-Grade Classroom

Ms. Brown teaches in a suburb of a major urban area. Her K-3 school is small, and the twenty-four students in her first-grade class are from both middle-class and working-class homes. Ms. Brown and her students have been studying ants as part of their unit on insects. Ms. Brown integrates design technology into the unit, and the students have been challenged with design problems that include the following:

• Design and build a model ant. It must have three body parts and six legs that are appropriately placed.
  
  
• Design a headpiece to wear that will support two ant "feelers."
  
  
• Design a formicarium, a home for ants in the classroom.

Visiting Ms. Brown's class is a treat. There is evidence of the MST ants unit everywhere. The individual student desks are arranged to model chambers of an anthill. Even the classroom door is camouflaged as the central chamber of an anthill.

On the day of our visit, the children are preparing to share their discoveries with guests from a second-grade class. All around the classroom, there are ant models made of cardboard tubes, pipe cleaners, construction paper, and wire springs. Each child wears two antennae on his or her head. You can see the joy and excitement as the students describe how they designed their ant-feeler headbands. They talk about what worked and what didn't as they attached pipe cleaners to aluminum-foil-covered bands.

To present their ideas about leaf cutter, carpenter, army, and harvester ants, the students have created a "talking ant museum." The visitors tour the museum by moving among several "ant stations" set up in the room. (See the discussion of stations in Chapter 4 of Science Stories.) Different groups of students are in charge of different stations. When the visitors arrive at each station, the students recite their "ant facts" relating to the display at that station. For example, if the display is an ant farm, the students tell the visitors about how the ants function in this habitat. Another station has a display of model antennae, and the visitors are told about the ways in which ants make use of their antennae.

The arrangements for this tour are remarkable. The children are only in first grade and it is only November, but they are precision-like in their understanding of how visitors will move to and from specific stations and what they will find at each one.

The main "ant station" has a formicarium, a microscope, ant farms, model ants, and pictures and books about ants. With their visitors, the children engage in a discussion about the design problems they encountered as they constructed their formicarium. This structure resembles a large mayonnaise jar with a smaller jar inside. Sand fills the spaces between the inner and outer jars, and the opening is covered with a plastic bag in which holes have been punched. The ants are visible against the white sand.

The first group of children tell their story: "We used soil to begin with because we knew that this was what ants liked to live in. But then we couldn't see the ants against the dark soil. So we decided to use sand instead."

Another group faced a different dilemma: "The inner jar was too large at first, so we couldn't put enough soil into the jar. We had to find a smaller one. First, we used too much soil and buried the ants. Then we used less soil and the ants lived."

Another group of children share their problem with the opening of the jar: "We used a piece of nylon stocking to cover the top of the jar. But the ants used these tiny hooks that attach to their legs and escaped through the tiny holes in the stocking. Ants were everywhere! Then we used a piece of plastic and poked holes in it. That worked!" Notice how this explanation reflects the children's understanding of ants.

In this classroom the MST approach has integrated science ideas, design, measurement, experimentation, communication, and enthusiasm. All of the children are completely immersed in their information about ants. It is clear that they enjoy and are deeply involved in this project. They have made the knowledge their own.

For more information about ants and ant projects, see the following sources:

Fazzi, Patricia F. (1998). "Anticipating Ants: An Integrated Approach Through Design Technology." Technology and Children, 2 (February):8-11. This article presents a wonderful design challenge. The students are asked to design and build an ant-proof device to protect the food on a 5-inch paper plate at a picnic. The materials are paper plates, live ants, magnifying glasses, and recycled materials found in the technology center in the classroom.

Insecta Inspecta World. http://www.insecta -inspecta.com/

Interesting Facts About Ants. http://www.lingolex.com/ants.htm

Story 2
Wacky Weather: An MST Unit on Weather for Fifth Grade

Ms. Banta's fifth-grade class is beginning a unit on weather. On a mild autumn day, Ms. Banta takes the class outside to explore clouds through direct observation. The students then make models of different types of clouds, using absorbent cotton, glue, and poster board. They learn that clouds may be classified as cumulus, stratus, and cirrus on the basis of their shapes and that these shapes are determined by the way the cloud forms. The students also come to understand that when clouds have the properties of two types, they may be called by a combination of the two names, such as cirrostratus. Through their research, the students further learn that different types of clouds are associated with predictions of different types of weather.

To explore ways in which scientists study the weather, the students construct models of weather instruments. Ms. Banta has collected exciting activities that help the students build model barometers, hygrometers, weather vanes, anemometers, and thermometers. The students begin to understand the properties of weather that are measured with these instruments: air pressure, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, and air temperature.

Ms. Banta also wants to teach the students the ways in which weather all over the world affects how people live and work. For this part of the unit, she engages the class in a design project with the following challenge:

Challenge:

Design a model backpack that you would take to one of the following regions to explore the area on foot. The regions are: Juneau, Alaska; Dallas, Texas; Oslo, Norway; Puebla, Mexico; Perth, Australia; and Bangor, Maine.

Specifications:

Your backpack must have provisions to sustain you for five days. You must consider the climate of the region as well as the weather at this time of year (November). Your backpack must weigh no more than 10 kilograms and must include models of food, clothing, and an exploration device. The food you choose must have an adequate nutritional value to sustain you while hiking. Your backpack cannot be more than 75 cm long and 60 cm wide and must be easily transportable in your region. The depth of the backpack is up to you, but the entire construction needs to fit through the classroom door!

Constraints:

Your backpack must be made from materials found in the classroom technology corner. No real food is acceptable; you have to construct models from the empty cans and boxes provided.

The fifth-grade students work in groups of four, and they are given time to work on their designs each day. Ms. Banta coaches and guides the groups and makes useful suggestions about materials. As with most design projects, students are required to do background research. In this case, they gather data from the Internet about their regions.

As they progress, the students record information in their "Design Portfolios." These include sections for Brainstorming, Research, Sketches, Specifications, Constraints, Testing Ideas, and Final Product Description. When the time arrives for presentation of their designs, the students have recorded a great deal of information in their portfolios.

Each student group is prepared with an ingenious solution to the problem. For example, the Juneau, Alaska, group has designed a backpack in the form of a sled that can be pulled on the ice. The Puebla, Mexico, group has designed a backpack that is very lightweight and could be carried by two people at a time, lessening the load for each. During each presentation, students describe the major weather features of their region and the adaptations they have made to their backpack for a successful trip.

For more information about weather projects, see the following sources:

Todd Gross' Weather and Astronomy Site. This site contains numerous links and photos as well as a great deal of information about weather.

USA Today Weather. The opening page of USA Today's weather site shows a shaded temperature map and allows students to investigate weather all over the country.

Weather and Climate: Collecting and Presenting Weather Data. This site, from the DiscoveryWorks section of Houghton Mifflin's Education Place, describes weather projects for a classroom and offers a number of useful links for weather information.

Weather.com. Sponsored by the Weather Channel, this site allows students to explore weather conditions all over the world.

The Weather Dude. This weather education site, designed especially for kids, offers weather quizzes, "musical meteorology," and much more.