Learning about teamwork from a marble ramp activity

By Melissa Rohr
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
November, 2010

"Marble Ramp" Today's topic of the day was the constructivist learning theory but as a warm up we did the marble ramp activity. This was a fun activity but it was challenging. Aside from the challenge coming together in a common idea with my group was more of a challenge. At first we were dumbfounded and had a lot of trouble coming up with a starting point. I figured if no one is going to take action, then I might as well start. Once I said something the group kind of got motivated and we began to piece by piece build the ramp. Unfortunately, we barely finished in time and the ramp did not exactly work the way it was supposed to, but we had a common idea that would have worked had we finished in the allotted time.

Group work seems easy, but it is a challenge identifying a common goal. One you identify the common goal, that facilitates the entire process. I must say I am a competitive person, and I was upset that our ramp did no achieve the task, but hey that's what trial and error is all about. In regards to constructivism, I definitely see myself as a constructivist. When learning, I always try to relate the material to an experience I had to help me better understand it. I trend to be a cognitive constructivist however, I prefer individual learning opposed to group work. However, when you're on the other side of the classroom as a teacher you have to think differently.

A teacher must take into account what types of learners are in their classroom and make the learning process student centered. Each student is different, some like to learn from within others need group and social interaction so a teacher must understand this and adapt to allow all their students to learn.