TEKS ELA Standard: 1.11.B.i

Any Shape With Just One Cut

Octopus Walks on Two Tentacles

Ice Bike With Circular Saw Wheels

Impossibly High House of Cards

Domino Chain Takes 10,000 Steps

Getting Inside a 704 lb Pumpkin

24-Hour Time Lapse

Impossible Balanced Rock Structures

Lego Great Wave off Kanagawa

Fold a Tiny Paper Book

Omni-Directional Sidewinder Forklift

Square-Wheeled Tricycle

Apple Harvesting Machine

Bird Behavior Photos

Omnidirectional Bike With Ball Wheels

Neon Human Slinkies

Lego-Compatible Tape

Tatsuya Tanaka Builds a Miniature Scene

Lego Sun, Earth, and Moon Model

60,000 Magnetic Spheres

Lego Firewood Factory

Robot Fighters

Magnetic Newton’s Cradle

Marble Racing With Commentary

Optical-Illusion Sculptures Made of Garbage

Self-Leveling Pool Table on a Ship

Faux Shadows on Streets

Stacking Books on Rolled-Up Paper

Tossing Tea at -40°C

Cube-Shaped Watermelons

Miniature Marble Music Machine

Shredding Paper With Lego

Pineapple Disintegration

Wood Bending Machine

Marble-Powered Music Machine

Hair Dryer Kinetic Art

Mesmerizing Sand Patterns With Magnets

Marble Course All Around the Backyard

Making a Chain Link From a Red-Hot Rod

William Tell Overture on Glass Bottles

Introducing Order and Chaos

Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.

Categorize and Re-Categorize Animals

Put these animals into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same creatures reveal new patterns and give new insights?

Famous Structures

The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.

Order Can Be Natural or Constructed

When is order natural and when is it designed by people?

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.