STEM PROJECT: MINI GOLF COURSE

How do have kindergarteners demonstrate physics concepts? With a miniature golf course, of course!

In December 2021, my kindergarteners demonstrated their understanding of push and pull forces by making a class miniature golf course.

Before the project, we read How Do You Lift a Lion? by Robert E. Wells. Students learned that forces are responsible for moving objects, whether it be a force we push or pull on an object or gravity.

If I were to do this unit again, I may consider giving students more time to play with the objects. They had a lot of fun designing and testing their levers. Many even asked if we could do it again another day!

I've collected a variety of miscellaneous objects that are cylinders and spheres. I put them in a big container and let them explore the objects to see what rolls and doesn't. They even had some races. In art, they rolled bouncy balls in paint.

Our culminating project was a miniature golf course. We watched some videos of mini golf courses and people playing real golf too to get ideas.

I had real golf balls, but we strategized using objects in the classroom to make the other parts. Long wooden blocks made great golf clubs, and the kids used baskets, cups and paper tubes as the hole.

​Their favorite part may have been designing the hole "numbers" with their partners because they were each responsible for one hole in the course.

I borrowed cones from our P.E. teacher for each hole number. The kids drew their number designs on index cards. We taped them to popsicle sticks to put on the cones.

What I learned:

1. Time to Play/Explore - If I had it to do over again, I would give them time to play before creating their final golf course hole.
2. Classroom Space - Our classroom was limited in size. We could have instead used the playground.
3. Limit the Materials - Students may have been overwhelmed by the materials, and some items didn't work as intended. For example, we figured out that the small toilet paper tubes were too small to fit the golf ball. Perhaps a bouncy ball could have been more useful. They also were distracted by toy decorations. When their mechanisms didn't work, they had to put their decorations back in order, which was frustrating for them. Now that I know what worked well, I might limit the materials in the future to things that will focus students on the physics concepts, including tape, big paper tubes, and cardboard pieces.
4. Support - Older kids came to our class to support the students. They did a great job with helping and not taking over the project. Parents also came, and it was a great learning opportunity for all of us!

Photos were kindly taken by one of my student's parents, S. Smith Patrick.