Year 8 are choosing a joint for the frame of their pine desk tidy. Each group glued four joints with PVA the lesson before, all cut from the same 18 mm pine: a butt joint, a lap joint, a dowel joint and a halving joint. With each joint clamped to the bench, students hang a bucket a few centimetres above a floor mat and add sand until the joint fails, then weigh the bucket to get the breaking load. Groups type their results into one Google Sheet the teacher has set up, where a chart of every group's results and the class average for each joint updates as the numbers arrive, and the teacher watches it, stops the class when one group's butt joint has outlasted its halving joint, and asks that group to show the broken halving joint, where a thin, starved glue line explains the result. Students end by writing which joint they will use and the evidence from the class data behind their choice.
Tools: Google Sheets Nine ideas for your own version in Generate
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