Lesson 2: Stevie and the Big Project

Fail | Frustrated | Persistence | Unplugged

Overview

Sometimes, when students hit a roadblock while answering a question or working on a project, it's easy for them to get frustrated and want to quit. This lesson introduces an important idea: frustration can actually be a normal and helpful part of learning. Instead of treating frustration as a sign of failure, this lesson presents it as a natural step in the creative process — something everyone goes through when they're working on something challenging.

This lesson can be taught over one or two class periods. If you have extra time, feel free to spend longer on the building and revising part of the Marble Run activity.

Purpose

The goal of this lesson is to help students understand that failure and frustration are common when working on projects — but that these feelings don't mean they should give up.

Students will learn what it feels like to be frustrated while working on a big project. Not every student may feel frustrated during this activity, but the lesson still gives the class many chances to talk about times in the past when they felt frustrated but kept trying anyway (in other words, when they showed persistence, or the ability to keep going even when something is hard).

Agenda

Warm Up (15 min)

• Stevie and the Big Project
• Vocabulary

Marble Run (20–45 min)

• Before the Project
• Building the Marble Run
• After the Marble Run

Wrap Up (5 min)

• Journaling

Extended Learning

View on Code Studio

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Recognize and describe signs of frustration.
• Explain at least one reason why they will choose to keep trying when they feel frustrated, instead of giving up.

Preparation

• Watch the Stevie and the Big Project – Teacher Video.
• Read Stevie and the Big Project ahead of time to think of good questions to ask your class.
• Follow the instructions in the Marble Run – Teacher Prep Guide to build a Marble Run.
• Print a copy of the Marble Run Ruler (found on page 2 of the teacher guide) for each student or pair of students.
• Set up a resource station with cardstock, safety scissors, tape, and any other fun building materials you'd like to include.
• Include a stack of "Marble Run Hints" pages from the Teacher [guide].