Does anyone have any ideas what my students could make or put together quickly to act out an assembly line? I'm trying to think of what small groups may do to make something and keep passing it on for others to finish... and cheap... and easy (of couse)! Any thoughts?
Once for a fund raiser, we made bead kits for constructing turtles, lizards, hearts, etc. We set up an assembly line: two students measured and cut the cord, one folded the cord and inserted it in the zip lock bag, students counted out the beads of each color putting them in nut cups, another gathered those and added them to the bag, one folded the instruction sheet, another added it to the bag. One was quality control and checked that everything was there, another put the price tag on, and another packed them in the box for selling. There was also a foreman, or forelady, who supervised. It was a great activity that they loved.
On a simpler level, you could make sandwiches, snacks, or some other food item. Or, if food is a NO-NO, you could make some kind of game.
I have known teachers to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Last year, we made ice cream in ziploc baggies. If you are doing this now, you could make some kind of Fall craft to send home at Thanksgiving.
Cowbell- you said you made ice cream in a baggie as an assembly line. I will be dong this this week and am looking for a sane way to do it. Could you offer any tips? Thanks
First, I usually do an assembly line with legos. I have one student trying to build the model by himself and I have an assembly line building the same thing.This shows that the line can build faster. Next, I put the students into groups and they come up with something their line will create. We've had English muffin pizzas, ice cream sundaes, crafts, and so on. The students love it! I make the students responsible for bringing in their own supplies.
I'm sorry, I just got your message. I don't have the recipe at home, but I am sure it is online somewhere. Last year, I set the desks in two long rows for two assembly lines. I had two students for each assembly line in charge of scooping and putting the ice in the big bags. I had a student measure salt, pour salt, measure milk, pour milk, measure vanilla extract and pour( I can't remember the rest of the ingredients). A student "walked" each baggie down the line like a conveyor belt. When they received all of their ingredients they were in charge of turning their bag. One person timed the turning. When the ice cream solidified, the student got another bag and went through the process again. This worked very well. Everyone had jobs and it takes a lot of students to turn the bags. When we finished, we ate it and discusses the process. Good luck! I hope I posted in time to help!
Shannon
I have never done this but I suggested using this to a fellow teacher. You could use a Mr. Potato Head and the pieces to show how an assembly line works. It may not be as tasty as some of the other examples but it might be a neat activity to launch your lesson. I have a ton of tater head pieces that I have gotten from friends, and Goodwill. I refuse pieces now b/c I have so many.
The "old" pens that have two parts, a spring, and the ink shaft. I demonstrated that using an assembly line is faster than individuals when mass producing.
When I taught this for economics, our social studies book had a section about Henry Ford and how he started the assembly line process. I found this activity in the teacher's manual:
I put the students in groups of 4-5. To start, I had each student individually make a car out of construction paper. They could put whatever they wanted on it---I gave them a set amount of time to construct (15-20 minutes, maybe?)
Then I told them they would be making a car from construction paper on an assembly line, and they would be given the same amount of time to construct them as the first one they made.
Before they started, they had to decide what parts they would include on the car (body, wheels, windshield, what color, etc. and they then had to assign each person in the group a part to make, and they had to make a pattern for their part (one person added the details with a pen so they did not have a part to make).
When it was over, we discussed the differences between the specially made/individual one and the assembly line one. For example, the individually made car might have had more details, had exactly what they wanted on it (color,etc.) but they only had time to make one.
As for the assembly line car, they could make more cars in the set amount of time, each car turned out the same with no mistakes, each person in the group made a certain part and glued it on so that part turned out all the same, BUT maybe they had lost the "specialness" to each car (they were all the same color, size, etc.)
This was great to lead into a discussion of pricing--they really seemed to get the idea how when things are "handmade" or made specially for someone, they tend to be more expensive, but mass production is faster and cheaper and cuts down on errors, allowing a company to make more money!
10-19-2006, 07:40 PM
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