Grabbing for the Gold

Challenge
Leprechauns should be making their rounds this month, hiding under rainbows with their pot of gold and four-leaf clovers. Just imagine if you were able to get close to a leprechaun and all its gold. What would you do? Steal his gold? Well, that’s going to be part of the challenge this month. We aren’t going to trap the leprechaun but try and take the gold right from under his nose. Your challenge is to design a tool that will be able to grab the pot of gold from a distance as if you were in the bushes. What will you design, a lasso, a grabber, a sticky hand, a long hook?

Your gold taking tool does have some criteria and constraints. Only the materials provided can be used in your design. The tool must be able to reach at least 2 feet. You will also want to make sure the pot of gold doesn’t tip over and spill any gold. The more gold in the pot when it reaches you the better!

Materials

• pot of gold (medicine cup with small items)
• craft sticks
• straws
• tape
• string
• index cards
• clay
• cardboard
• toothpicks
• pipe cleaners
• brass fasteners

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Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible and movable they are.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their final design. Include as many ways to improve their contraption as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available or allowed to use, add any additional materials, show examples of grabbers, change the distance of the pot of gold, or not to have the gold still left in the pot for success. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to be clear about where the pot of gold is sitting and where the students are hiding in the bushes. Create a start line and an X to mark the spot of the pot for each group.
5. Make a score chart with them to show how much each gold coin is worth, the pot is worth, getting them all, or any other possibilities they can imagine. Have them attempt to get the pot of gold three times tracking their score for each attempt. Allow them to redesign or fix their tool between attempts if needed.