ahead of the session to decide what segments illustrate the behavior and talk that can be the context for the pedagogical issues you wish to emphasize.<br><br> The transcript below enables you to follow the action. There are suggestions in the transcript for possible discussion questions. A more detailed description of how to use videos in professional development is provided at http://cse.edc.org/products/npassprofdevguide/UsingVideos.html , part of EDC 9s Guide to Professional Development of Out-of-School Science Activity Leaders .<br><br> Using   the   Video   for   Reflective   Discussion   The pedagogical issues that can be discussed depends on the particular kinds of activities shown in the video and what specific kinds of behavior and talk occur among the activity leader and the youth. In this video, the actions and talk of the activity leader can provide concrete situations to prompt discussion about the following pedagogical practices: " The role of the activity leader during the manipulation of materials " The role of the activity leader in providing guidance to the youth during the activity Role of the Activity Leader During the Manipulation of Materials Activity leaders must balance different roles when working with youth who are manipulating materials. There is the question of how much the activity leader should directly be engaged with the youth and how much should he or she stand back and observe.<br><br> There can be a tendency to provide youth with lots of help or ask them lots of questions, but asking lots of questions can sometimes interfere with the activity of the youth, distracting them from what they want to focus on. Providing too much help limits what youth can learn on their own. On the one hand, the activity leader should stand back and observe how the youth are doing and whether any individual youth are experiencing particular problems.<br><br> They must also assess how the youth are doing and gather observations on which to comment during the follow-up discussion. However, spending the whole time standing back can result in missed opportunities to help youth or to get a sense of what they are thinking. How much time should activity leaders spend in each role?<br><br> Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules for how to be engaged. Activity leaders need to make judgment calls about how much youth should be left to figure out the situation on their own 4which allows them to think for themselves 4and how much time should be spent asking questions. So, it is a continual matter of adjusting to where the youth are and how much they need help and when might be a good time to engage a youth verbally.<br><br>   3   The Role of the Activity Leader in Providing Guidance During the Activity The youth seen in this video try several ways of placing long dowels in the acrobat without successfully getting it to balance vertically. What is really interesting and should be a point for discussion for the viewers is what happens when the activity leader shows one group the solution. At one point, the activity leader spends time with several youth showing them how to place the long dowels in the acrobat, essentially giving them the solution to the posed problem.<br><br> After he leaves these youth, one of the boys reverts back to what he was doing before the activity leader interacted with him. The fact that this happens can be a point for discussion. How much and when should activity leaders help youth in solving a problem?<br><br> Another important thing to think about is how strongly youth will hold on to their conceptions of how something should work. It is interesting to watch one girl in Chapter 4. From her manipulations of the dowels, she doesn 9t appear to be convinced of the suggestion that the activity leader, Noe, presented to her group at one point.<br><br> Even after her partner places the dowels so that they are pointing down and below the plastic body, she still doesn 9t seem convinced. This may be because of her own strong conviction that the dowels should be placed horizontally instead of vertically. Her actions can be another point for an extended discussion.<br><br> This video contains the following chapters: " Chapter   1:   The   activity   leader   introduces   the   activity   to   youth   The   activity   leader   introduces   a   model   of   an   acrobat   and   challenges   the   youth   to   find   a   way   to   balance   the   acrobat   using   two   dowels   and   some   nails.   " Chapter   2:   Youth   assemble   the   acrobat   The   activity   leader   helps   some   youth   in   the   assembly   of   the   acrobat   and   explains   further   the   challenge   they   have   in   balancing   it.   " Chapter   3:   Youth   balance   the   acrobat   Youth   attempt   to   find   ways   of   balancing   the   acrobat.<br><br>   The   activity   leader   gives   direct   hints   and   help   to   one   group   to   solve   the   problem.   " Chapter   4:   The   activity   leader   changes   the   problem   The   activity   leader   introduces   new   material   that   changes   the   original   problem.   " Chapter   5:   The   activity   leader   and   the   youth   continue   to   interact     Activity   leader   focuses   on   a   few   youth   to   help   them   solve   the   new   problem.<br><br>    About   the   Activity   The activity seen in this video is from Explore It! Science Investigations in Out-of-School Programs (published by Kelvin; Kelvin.com). cBalancing Toys d is an extended exploration designed to take place over 8 310 sessions.<br><br> This acrobat activity is the fourth activity in cBalancing Toys. d Viewers should be informed that prior to this activity, the youth spent sessions balancing a model of a human body (see in Part 1 of this video series), balancing a model airplane, and balancing a model boat. In each of these activities, they observed that the placement of parts of the model had an effect on whether the object balanced. In the case of the model airplane, youth needed to balance horizontally.<br><br> In the case of the model boat, youth   4   needed to balance vertically. Pieces of cardboard were used to represent wings on the airplanes and sails and keels on the boats. With the model boats, the youth could observe that more weight had to be below the balancing boat than above to get it to balance vertically.<br><br> This finding could be transferred to the activity that is shown in this video. Here, the youth are challenged to balance a piece of plastic (a section of a pool noodle) on a piece of stick. After placing small pieces of dowel in one end to act as feet or legs, they need to stick two long pieces of dowel in the cbody d of the acrobat in such a way that the acrobat will balance vertically on a piece of stick taped to the table.<br><br> This is a very challenging problem for the youth; it can be a very challenging problem even for adults. About   the   Transcript   This transcript is provided so that you can better follow any comments made by the activity leader and the youth in the videos. Using the transcript can make it easier to facilitate a discussion, because it allows you to continue discussing the dialogue in the video without having to replay the video over and over to hear what is being said.<br><br> Commentary in the transcript is written in bold type. Descriptions of what is occurring at various points are given in italics . The names of youth within the dialogue have been shortened to downplay the importance of their names and to emphasize what they are actually saying.<br><br> When a youth 9s name is not known, cyouth d or cboy/girl d was used. The activity leader 9s name or initials is in all capital letters so you can easily find the locations in the transcript of when he is speaking. Questions have been added to the transcript to help you guide yourself and others in what questions they want to examine during their viewing of the video.<br><br> Guiding questions are questions that guide the viewing of a long portion of the video while discussion questions are questions aimed at looking at a particular situation within the activity being viewed. **** CHAPTER 1 The activity leader, Noe, is leading the Acrobat session of cBalancing Toys. d The youth have already done several sessions 4one on balancing the model body, one on airplanes, and one on boats. He begins a discussion with youth seated on the rug.<br><br> Guiding Question What is the role of the activity leader in introducing a new activity? 00:01 NOE: &turn, Corey. It takes a turn, but& NOE: We 9re going to be balancing with an acrobat.<br><br> Do you guys know what an acrobat is?   5   The ctoy 9 youth are about to explore and manipulate is supposed to represent an acrobat in a circus. So, Noe is attempting to see if youth know about acrobats and how they perform.<br><br> This is a useful practice. Rather than directly introducing the toy, he provides some context for what the toy is about. Youth: No, but& NOE: Acrobat?<br><br> Youth: It 9s a person& NOE: Yeah. And what does this person do? Youth: &that flies, right?<br><br> NOE: It flies? Khalil? Ka: He as a bar.<br><br> He swings on it. He might do a few flips too. NOE: Can you physically demonstrate that to me?<br><br> Like if you were an acrobat? Ka: No NOE: No? Who wants to be an acrobat?<br><br> Co: Me NOE: Corey? Show me, what do they do? Co: No& NOE: You go to the circus right?<br><br> Let 9s name the circus. What circus do we have? Youth: Jo-Jo 9s Circus.<br><br> Youth: Cuckoo circus. NOE: How about the Ringling Bros.? M: What?<br><br> What 9s that? NOE: It 9s a circus, dude. NOE: Okay, well, okay.<br><br> (Noe stands up - he 9s going to demonstrate) 00:49   6   NOE : So here 9s& they have a high wire, right? And they 9re usually walking. So what do they do?<br><br> NOE: Amari? Youth: They.. they do one foot.<br><br> NOE: Do you want to show me? Youth: And they have the wheel&whatever they call&.wheels. NOE: Okay so they go up& Ka: They 9d have a bar and it 9d be suspended.<br><br> NOE: They 9re suspending themselves? Ka: And they 9ll be, like, they might be on the bottom, they dangle from the bar. NOE: Alright, so they 9re on a high wire on top and you 9re watching them.<br><br> So this guy 9s walking, like this? Ka: No. NOE: No?<br><br> That 9s not an acrobat? Okay, then show me. What 9s an acrobat?<br><br> Ka: No, I 9m not showing you. NOE: Then how can you refuse my&? Youth: They are attached to bars that have strings& they swing on that to the other side.<br><br> Lots of noise from other youth. NOE: Shh&Shh.. I 9m hearing from Khalil.<br><br> NOE: Well, Khalil , you 9re right about the bars. Ka: And they 9re jumping& and jump on& and go the rest of the way (showing arc of a flying trapeze artist with hands) NOE: That 9s right, but there are various types of acrobats. There 9s the acrobats that are on the high wire, there 9s the acrobats that turn to, like, one swing to the other.<br><br> Kids are moving and talking.   7   NOE: I need you to sit. I need you to sit and put that away for the moment.<br><br> Aisha? Join me over here, sweetheart. 2:02 NOE: Okay, so we 9re learning that there 9s persons that work in the circus and they are acrobats.<br><br> They 9re always learning about how to balance their body. NOE: Joe, for example, lets talk about&have you ever been to the circus? Jo: Yeah.<br><br> NOE: Have you ever seen the guys that are on the high wires? Kids talking in background. NOE: They can be dressed as clowns.<br><br> Youth: They can be on a elephant NOE: They can be on an elephant. Youth: Like, there 9s like, this big& I been to the circus once. There 9s this big rope like Khalil was saying and they swing on it.<br><br> Or they just walk. Jo: Or sometimes that have those wheelchairs&no, those wheel things. Youth: Those one-wheeled& Youth: Or they have these bicycle things and they ride across.<br><br> Ka: They go like this (pretends to ride bike) Jo: Once the dude almost fell. NOE: Okay, so now that we 9ve talked about acrobats. Acrobats have to balance themselves in various positions in a lot of different things in order to create themselves the excitement of us when we 9re in our chairs and we 9re watching them.<br><br> NOE: So what we 9re going to try to do today is to make an acrobat. Youth: Never!   8   NOE: We 9re going to try to make a person.<br><br> We 9re going to set up a ruler which you guys are going to tape over to the table. And you 9re going to try to balance this little toy that we 9re going to create. NOE: You 9re going to make a face.<br><br> You 9re going to create your own toy. I 9m going to set you up in groups of three. So, we got one table, two tables, three tables.<br><br> NOE: So, at this moment, I 9m going to give you the chance to pick your own team. You have three persons, three persons, and three persons. While you do that, I 9m going to get the materials.<br><br> Discussion Question: What are the effects of an activity leader introducing an activity to each individual group instead of doing it in front of the whole group? During the beginning of the activity Noe goes from group to group, giving them specific directions of how to assemble the acrobat and how to place the stick on the table. This practice has its virtues and drawbacks.<br><br> The directions can be adjusted to the youth in each group and the activity leader can make sure they understand how to proceed. However, by going from group to group, others are waiting for him to come to them to get started. While waiting they may get restless and become distracted.<br><br> Also, giving directions specifically to each group does not allow youth to learn how to think for themselves and figure out what to do and how to proceed. CHAPTER 2 Noe is working with a group of three girls who are drawing faces on the acrobats. 03:37 NOE: How 9s that face coming along, Taisha?<br><br> Ta shows Noe her work. NOE: Nice. Ta: But I need a little darker color.<br><br> NOE: Yeah? Well, let 9s see. Mitri 9s color is a little darker.<br><br> Maybe after she 9s done she can help you with it. Okay? NOE: Okay, guys.<br><br> Now, here 9s the next suggestion to your group. Umm&You will need two rulers. This is what 9s going to happen.<br><br> We 9re going to set up our rulers out& NOE: Listen to this, 8cause you 9re gonna to have to do this. You 9re going to set up on 10 cm. Once you get to 10 cm, you 9re going to grab some tape .<br><br> (Noe demonstrates by taping a ruler to the table at the 10 cm mark)   9   NOE: Are you hearing this? Youth: And you tape it and you line it across. NOE: You 9ve got to tape it because we 9re going to have our acrobat on this ruler.<br><br> This is going to be like our high wire. So our acrobat can be right here. (points to end of ruler sticking out from desk) NOE: Okay, so, we get another piece of tape and you guys make sure it 9s&..<br><br> Youth: Really taped to the table? NOE: Yup. Youth: (looking at second ruler) Which one is centimeters?<br><br> NOE: Okay, let 9s make sure&( Noe is taping the second ruler to the desk as he explains ) NOE: Now, what we 9re having here& this ruler is going to be our high wire for our little acrobat. So, we 9re going to try to do this so that we can, um, put our acrobat on our high wire. Let 9s see if we can make it to balance.<br><br> Okay? So now let 9s finish up your drawings& CHAPTER 3 Noe is now working at another table with three youth (Joe, Shavanna, and Corey) who are putting legs onto their acrobats . Guiding Question How much help in the form of hints or direct suggestions should an activity leader give when youth are working on problems?<br><br>   10   04:56 NOE: &the legs. For example when I do one and you can do the other one. There 9s one leg, Joe, okay?<br><br> So you have to put the other leg on it. Jo: He has one bootlegged leg& NOE: And ah&.The same thing has to happen to this one (a second acrobat) with the other two dowels, okay? Noe walks away and youth continue to draw faces and add legs to their acrobats.<br><br> Noe returns to table with rulers. NOE: Now, one of the instructions, and I 9m going to give you two rulers& Cor: Right here? Noe look.<br><br> (Youth has put a leg onto his acrobat) Right here? One right here? NOE: Yup, you can put them wherever you want to.<br><br> NOE: But, now, let 9s remember. Joe? I need at least& and with your rulers& I need at least one inch to be sticking out.<br><br> So is this&this is not one inch right? (Noe is measuring the length of the leg on Joe 9s acrobat) NOE: So, that means that you have to push it in a little more. Tape cuts to further along in the session.<br><br> Noe is still talking to the same group of kids. 05:49 NOE: This is your challenge guys. Your challenge is for you guys to ah&try to balance our acrobat vertically& Jo: &on the ruler.<br><br> NOE: &on the high wire. On the ruler. And all I 9m going to give you is two pieces of dowel that are 20 inches long each.<br><br> NOE: So now, what I want to do is& this guy, with his one inch& (pointing to legs) Make sure they 9re one inch& The activity guide suggests that the feet of the acrobat stick out one inch. This is important because the longer the feet, the harder it will be to get the acrobat to balance vertically with the two 20-inch dowels. NOE: I want you to put it in here (Noe rests acrobat legs on ruler) and try to balance it.<br><br> (Figure stays on ruler for a second, then rolls off)   11   Jo: Oh, snap! 06:16 NOE: But, listen. I want you to balance it with this 20 inch dowels.<br><br> Cor: He 9s gonna be mad tall! NOE: Well, that 9s what I want you to find out. Okay?<br><br> Cor: Okay. Take these legs out? (Youth wants to replace short legs with 20 inch dowels) NOE: No, Leave the feet.<br><br> Joe? Leave the feet but I want you to use this 20 inch dowels to try to help balance it. Okay, for example, what about if I was to put one here and one here ?<br><br> (adds two long arms sticking out from body) NOE: Will it balance, Joe? What do you think? Jo: No.<br><br> NOE: Okay, well let 9s check it out. 06:38 Noe decides to place the long sticks in the acrobat and shows the youth what will happen. It doesn 9t balance quite vertically.<br><br> Notice that the sticks were placed pointing down. This is different from what the youth are doing; they are placing the sticks horizontally. Shav: It 9s not gonna balance.<br><br> Her comment here takes on significance over the rest of the session. As will be seen, she has definite ideas of how the sticks should be placed in the acrobat. Viewers should be encouraged to pay attention to her over the next series of segments.<br><br> NOE: Okay, well that 9s what I want you to figure out. That 9s your challenge. (he hands figure back to Joe) .<br><br> You 9ve got two&four&( counting dowels) 06:56 Group works on challenge, laughing and putting arms sticking straight out. They try to balance the figure, then adjust short and long dowels, try again. Corey moves the arms from high up on body to down low.<br><br>   12   09:09 Noe returns to the table. NOE: How you doing, Joe? Jo: It 9s not working.<br><br> Every time I put the stick in here, it& ( unintelligible) (Joe lets go of figure and it falls off ruler) NOE: Okay. Alright. NOE: So, let me ask you one question.<br><br> So, it 9s not balancing here and these are a little moved. (legs) Okay, so remember when we were doing the boats, Joe? Jo: Huh?<br><br> NOE; Remember when we were doing the boats? And the boats had a mark at the end that shows us the middle of the&.. The reference to the boats is to the previous activity.<br><br> The youth worked with a model boat that was made from a segment of a pool noodle with triangular pieces of cardboard acting as sails and keels. These pieces could be manipulated to get the model boat to be vertical. Presumably, the youth learned that more weight (larger piece of cardboard or nails stuck into the piece of cardboard) below the balancing point resulted in the model boat being vertical.<br><br> Noe here is reminding the youth about the line on the boat, suggesting that the youth think of placing the dowels as vertical as possible to have the weight of the dowels below the balancing point. He might have reminded them that more weight below the balancing line of the boat resulted in the boat being vertical. This could be a hint to them that they need to think of a way of attaching the long dowels to the acrobat so that the weight of the dowels is pointing downward and most of the weight of the dowels is below the balancing point of the acrobat.<br><br> NOE: What do you think is the center point for this? How do we keep the weight? Jo: I think we could put the thing like this.<br><br> (gestures to put line up and down the enter of the body) NOE: Okay. Jo: No, no, no. Never mind.<br><br> Never mind. NOE: Remember, our legs are what 9s keeping the weight. See& I can put& if we were to do this again& with the dowel in the middle& you see.<br><br> (Noe puts a long dowel through the center   13   hole in the bottom of the foam figure, and lets it go. The arms on the figure stick out on either side) NOE: Which&it shows we have equal weight on both parts. But when we put it on two little feet, it either turns this way or it turns that way.<br><br> (Noe is trying to balance figure on the ruler on its legs) 10:08 NOE: Now, how about if we would make our arms down? (Noe changes arms to have them pointing downward) NOE: Do you think that would work Shavanna? Let 9s find out.<br><br> Noe makes a major decision here. He is essentially showing them the solution to the problem. Jo: Oh, snap!<br><br> It balanced&ooh&ooh&ooh&ooh (figure starts to roll off) NOE: It sort of balanced, yeah, but it 9s still&it 9s tipping over .(Noe points to the fact that the body of the acrobat is not really upright) NOE: So your challenge is to make sure that it 9s&it 9s evenly balanced. NOE: See, it 9s working there. But let 9s make sure that we move the arms and legs in the right position.<br><br> Can you work on that Joe? Jo: Yeah. Given the youth 9s actions after Noe leaves, it appears that they did not really understand why it is necessary to have the dowels pointing down.<br><br> Noe moves to the other boy at the table who has been working by himself. Noe spends a little time with this one boy, helping him think about how the long dowels could be placed on the toy. With this kind of directed questioning, it would seem that this boy now knows how the dowels should be placed.<br><br> Just after Noe leaves, stop the video and ask viewers what they think Corey has learned from this exchange. NOE: Okay, Corey. (Corey is holding the second acrobat of the group) NOE: Let 9s make sure that our legs&our legs are the middle of our weight.<br><br> This is&this is where it keeps& For example, we have this dowel and we put it, like here, you can see that it 9s almost kind of equal, okay? (Noe puts dowel through center hole in foam, lets body hang)   14   NOE: But now, we 9ve got this arm, check it out. (Noe puts arm dowels into body) NOE: Corey, you see how we 9ve got two legs and then we 9ve got two arms?<br><br> (pointing to figure) NOE: You see how they 9re the same length? If I were to put this arm like this& (Noe moves one arm to be sticking straight out instead of angled down) NOE: Well, let 9s try it out. (puts acrobat on ruler) If I put it here&.See?<br><br> It sort of balances, but I have a lot of weight down, because the legs are a lot lighter than the arms. Cor: So, let 9s put it down, right? (starts to angle the straight arm downward) NOE: Let 9s put it down?<br><br> Okay, what do you think is going to happen? Cor: It 9s gonna stay. NOE: It 9s going to stay?<br><br> Cor: It 9s going to tip, kind of. NOE: How much do you think it 9s going to tip? Cor: A little bit.<br><br> NOE: Where? Cor: That way. (points to right) NOE: You think it 9s going to tip over this way?<br><br> Cor: Yeah. NOE: Alright, let 9s try it out. (figure rolls off ruler ) NOE: Okay, well it 9s not totally balanced, but we 9re getting the hang of it.<br><br> Let 9s try it out on the tip. See? it 9s almost there.<br><br> (continues trying to balance figure) NOE: Let 9s try it with one leg. It kind of wants to balance, but we still haven 9t worked with the weight in the arms. NOE: If you take a look at it, our legs are short and the arms are really long.<br><br> That means that if I pull&let 9s try it with the arms up. (Noe moves arms so that they are reaching up over head) Jo: We already tried that. NOE: Do you think it will do it?<br><br> You want to do it? (Corey tries to balance it on ruler)   15   NOE: Okay, well, it 9s tipping over to the right. (Corey moves the figure so it 9s facing forward) NOE: Let 9s move it that way.<br><br> Okay, keep on working with the arms to see if we can find some way where the arms are an equal weight. For example, let 9s say that we were to turn one up and one down. What do you think is going to happen?<br><br> NOE: Do you want to do it? (Corey puts figure on ruler, but does not even let go before he knows it will not balance. He shakes his head.) 12:42 NOE: Okay, let 9s see if we do it this way.<br><br> (Noe turns figure) Okay, we 9re almost there. (He takes arm that is pointing up, and puts it pointing down like the other) NOE: So, we 9re trying the different&differences in the balance system. Number 1, you 9ve got to make sure that there 9s equal weight here and here and that these are the same length.<br><br> (points to both arms) Now, let 9s try it this way. You want to move over to the side? (has Corey move his leg so that toy arm will not hit it) Okay, let 9s try it this way.<br><br> Well, it 9s tipping over this way so that 9s telling us that that 9s a lot of weight this way. Let 9s see if you can see if you can work with this arm so you can put more weight on the left side. Corey jams the figure so legs grab on either side of the ruler.<br><br> NOE: That 9s not going to work. See, it tips over this way, so that means there 9s a lot of weight on this side. NOE: Try to move the arm and place it up a little more this way.<br><br> (tries to balance figure again) NOE: See, still too much. So try to work with the arms. Maybe, put it vertically more down.<br><br> Like instead of this, (Noe holds his arms angled out from body) move your arms down, okay? Stop the videos here and ask viewers to discuss what Corey has learned. Will he now keep the long dowels pointing down?<br><br> When Noe leaves, Corey takes arms off figure and puts them sticking straight out. He attaches them very low on the body and tries to balance it. The acrobat barely balances but it doesn 9t fall over.<br><br> For some reason he changes the dowels and he tries angling arms upward. Meanwhile, Joe and Shavanna have the arms on their figure angled down, close to body. Joe gets his to balance and says: Jo: Corey!<br><br>   16   Joe 9s arrangement does balance but apparently Shevanna 9s leg was partly supporting it. When Joe asks her to move her leg, it still balances but not perfectly vertically. It is curious that they do not see this as being acceptable.<br><br> A little later at 15:12, Joe and Corey look across the room and see a group that is getting attention because this group appears to be successful. So, he goes back to sticking the dowels at the bottom of the acrobat pointing down. This appears to be successful to him but not necessarily to Shevanna.<br><br> Corey immediately moves the arms on his figure to match Joes and smiles. Then, both kids see another group that has the arms sticking out of the bottom edge of the foam, and think that looks like a good idea. Both want to try it and Joe says: Jo: Khalil, how 9d you do it like that?<br><br> Corey is carefully positioning the legs on his ruler because they are placed pretty far apart. He gets the toy to balance . Cor: Joe.<br><br> Joe! Joe look. While Corey is making adjustments Shevanna is watching him.<br><br> At 16:12, she says that cit won 9t stay. d But, it does. Notice the expression on her face and movement of her head. Possibly, she is surprised that the acrobat stays on the ruler.<br><br> Corey hits the toy with his leg and knocks it so that the legs are straddling the ruler again. He has trouble getting both legs on the ruler, so has it stand on just one leg. Cor: Noe!<br><br> Noe! Corey calls Noe because he now thinks he has solved the problem. It is interesting that he doesn 9t seem to see much of a difference from what he has just done to the arrangement that Noe showed him.<br><br> Apparently, because someone else across the room came up with this slightly different arrangement and was acknowledged for his success, Corey and Joe now seem to accept this arrangement as the solution to the problem. This arrangement does keep the toy vertical and is more stable. Discussion Question: Why did these youth only consider it successful when another group had come up with a solution that they had already tried previously?<br><br> 16:25 NOE: Time out. Time out. Everybody&I need you to have a seat Mitri.<br><br> Listen up, let 9s do a little question and answer, kind of, 5-minute re-group to see what we 9re finding out about the project. NOE: Mitri, sit, please.   17   Noe here is apparently calling for a time to have a whole-group discussion.<br><br> However, all the groups have the materials in front of them, which results in a general lack of attention. Then, he talks to Khalil in a way that draws in the rest of the group. NOE: Okay, Khalil, I want to interview you, bro.<br><br> So how did you figure out& what did you do in order to make your acrobat work? As I can see, you 9re helping Joe. What are you doing?<br><br> You just did it right now. What did you do? Ka: You have to put these at the bottom right here so it balances this out and this has to be completely straight.<br><br> And then, you can do this &(balances toy on his finger) NOE: You can even balance it on your finger? Right? So let me ask you this.<br><br> Why did you think it didn 9t work when you had your arms flopping out? (sticking straight out from body) Ka: Because It wasn 9t balanced. They were pushing a different way.<br><br> NOE: Which was where? Ka: This way (tips guy to left) or this way (tips guy to right) And even if one was like this&.whoop (tips figure) It is not clear from the boy 9s comments whether he fully understands why his arrangement works. He may intuitively place the sticks at the bottom of the toy, finding that it works.<br><br> At this point, he does not appear to have the words to explain why it works. NOE: Shavanna? F: There 9s too much weight.<br><br> NOE: There 9s too much weight. So we reach balance by making our acrobat and that really worked. 17:38 NOE: Now, check it out.<br><br> We can even move our ruler and it stays balanced. (Noe flicks the ruler and the guy bounces but stays balanced) Want to see yours? Ka: Let 9s see.<br><br> NOE: But your legs need a little work. Noe lifts the guy up by having one leg rest on his fingertip. NOE: Let 9s see if we can make it work with our other dowels.<br><br> Think this will work?   18   Noe lifts figure by resting one leg on end of a dowel. Ka: Oh, that 9s cool.<br><br> Can I see it? NOE: Here you go, Khalil. (passes dowel with acrobat to Khalil) Ka: That was cool I want to do that with my one.<br><br> Wait, I just got an idea! I can do it with both of them and see if they both& NOE: Well, you keep on moving it , brother! Okay, I 9ll leave you to that.<br><br> (Khalil keeps trying to balance two acrobats, one on each end of a dowel) 18:33 Noe goes over to where Joe is working and sits down. NOE: Okay, let 9s make it work. NOE: Let 9s go review before you do this.<br><br> (takes acrobat from Joe) Make sure that these (legs), like I said, are one inch sticking out. Let 9s measure them. Let 9s take our arms out.<br><br> These are a little more. That 9s probably one of the reasons. Let 9s make sure that by following a ruler here that there really only one inch feet.<br><br> (measures and pushes feet dowels in just a bit) NOE: Now we have got that completed. Now stick up one arm, and tell me, why you are going to put it there? Joe does not answer, but pushes arm into bottom of acrobat.<br><br> 19:01 NOE: Right at the bottom, okay. Right next to the feet. Why next to the feet?<br><br> (Joe shrugs shoulders) Joe did get his toy to balance before this exchange, but it was through Noe 9s showing him and then a little later copying some other successful solution. Shrugging the shoulders indicates he doesn 9t understand why it is working. NOE: Could it maybe be because that 9s the way we 9re made?<br><br> Check out our feet. NOE: Corey? You want to do this?<br><br> (Corey stands up next to Noe) NOE: See, your hands are exactly where your feet are. If we had arms that were as big as this, (the dowel) our arms would be right here. (puts fingers down next to toes) Okay, so maybe that 9s what Joe is doing.<br><br> He 9s trying to create balance by putting those legs right next to the feet.   19   NOE: Okay? You want to do this one?<br><br> Okay. 19:38 NOE: (speaking off camera to another group ) Did you try this one already? NOE: Alright, Joe.<br><br> Okay, Corey, put it there. NOE: Wait a minute. There it is.<br><br> Why is it balanced now Cory? What was happening before when you had your arms up like this? (gestures arms outstretched) Cor: It could tip over.<br><br> NOE: It could tip over? Joe, okay so why isn 9t it tipping over? NOE: Right now I 9m moving this (tapping ruler) and it 9s still in there.<br><br> See, it 9s keeping balance. If I move it here& Okay, Joe. So here 9s one&So we already learned that all our weight& Corey?<br><br> The legs are a lot heavier.. I mean the arms are a lot heavier than the legs. NOE: Now let 9s see if I was going to turn this up the other way.<br><br> (takes two arms and sticks them out of top of acrobat instead of bottom ) So now we have more weight up than down. Do you think its going to stay? Jo: No, no.<br><br> 8Cause we tried that before and it didn 9t work. Noe tries it. NOE: So why not?<br><br> Why doesn 9t it stay? Jo: Because it doesn 9t have balance NOE: I know it doesn 9t balance but why not? What 9s happening to the weight on the top and the weight on the bottom?<br><br> 20:55 Shav: There 9s more weight on the top because your arms are like this (puts hands over head) and your feet are still on the ground and your weight and if you go like this, your weight 9s going to drop down some. NOE: That 9s right. So, what do you think we should do on this one, Shavanna?<br><br> (hands her the acrobat with arms stretched above the head) Shav: Like, put the arms right here. (Shavanna moves the arms from the top to body part, but angled downwards)   20   NOE: Okay, now Shavanna tried to do the&put the arms in a V but down. Let 9s try to see if this works.<br><br> (tries acrobat on ruler) NOE: Well it 9s balancing but it 9s tipping over. (meaning it balances side to side, with the arms, but the body falls forward) Let 9s see if Joe can fix it. Joe puts arms back into bottom of foam.<br><br> Shav: We just did that one. Jo: Well, we 9re gonna try it again. NOE: Okay, Joe?<br><br> So you 9re putting them exactly where you put them before, right? Okay, I 9ll leave you to that. Noe leaves group.<br><br> CHAPTER 4 22:17 NOE: We learned that by keeping the weight down, with&down on our feet, we can reach the balancing point on our acrobats just like this. But now let 9s try a little trick. Let 9s get rid of the 20 inch dowels.<br><br> Put them on table. And I have set there for you, 10-inch dowels, okay? NOE: So we 9re going to set them up like arms.<br><br> These are going to be little shorter arms, okay? So now are arms look a lot shorter&guys, listen to this& and what I 9m going to give you is, I 9m gonna give you four nails. Two nails are going to be put as a (unintelligible&bulk?) weight with a rubber band that I 9m going to give you.<br><br> Okay? (wraps rubber band around dowel and nail to hold it in place) NOE: So what we 9re going to try to do is try to reach balance with weights down. Let 9s see if we can reach it&ah& balancing acrobats in our high wire.<br><br> But I 9m going to give you the nails and the rubber bands. So, at this moment, get rid of the 20-inch dowels. Use the 10-inch dowels as arms.<br><br> I 9m going to give you rubber bands and nails. NOE: Corey, I already did one for you so you need to do the other one. (gives Corey the model her has been demonstrating with)   21   CHAPTER 5 Chapter begins with a student seated at a table, manipulating the dowel and nails.<br><br> She starts to poke the dowel into the acrobat body, but is sticking in the end with the nails attached. Noe approaches. 23:26 NOE: Okay now, remember Aisha that we 9re trying to keep the weight in the arms down.<br><br> We 9re actually trying to connect the& to keep the weight on the other end. So try to connect these pieces of dowel. (points to the end without nail attached) NOE: No, this.<br><br> (turns Aisha 9s dowel around) Ai: This? NOE: This, right. NOE: You got your feet&remember, you 9ve got your feet here, okay?<br><br> Now, how do the arms look? Do the arms go down or up? Aisha sticks dowels out, perpendicular to body.<br><br> NOE: You 9re going to put them on okay vertically like doing a T? Okay. Okay, now you need.&what happened to your other nails?<br><br> Okay, you got that one. NOE: And you 9re going to put it exactly on the other side. Hope.<br><br> Remember, we 9ve got our (unintelligible) weight here ( point to nails at end of dowel) You got to do it from the other side (turns dowel around for Aisha) Noe leaves Aisha for a minute, then returns. 24:56 NOE: &acrobat. And you already put the weight on this side.<br><br> Okay, now you want to put it over on our high wire or our ruler and see if it balances out? You want to do that for me? (Aisha tries to balance figure, it falls) NOE: Let 9s try it one more time.<br><br> There it is. What do you think is&we 9ve got exactly the same amount of weight. What do you think is happening to our acrobat.<br><br> Why can 9t it balance? Ai: Because the arms are straight out. NOE: The arms are straight out?<br><br> Ai: And three 9s nails in them.   22   NOE: Okay, do you think it will help if we put our arms down? Or our arms up?<br><br> Ai: Up NOE: Okay, let 9s try them up. (Aisha starts moving dowels in to a V above head) NOE: Okay, that 9s good. Want to do the other side?<br><br> Ai: Okay. NOE: Okay, good .Now we 9ve got our arms in a V, like this, right? ( stretches out own arms) So now let 9s put it on our high wire.<br><br> What do you think is going to happen, David? Da: It going to fall off. NOE: It 9s going to fall off?<br><br> It 9s going to tip over? Ready? (figure falls) NOE: What happened?<br><br> Why is it not staying there? Ai: 8Cause it 9s up. Da: No, try putting them like different& one down and one up.<br><br> NOE: One down and one up? Like this? Okay, that seems like a logical idea.<br><br> This way we have some weight the top and some weight on the bottom, right? NOE: Khalil, how are we doing over there, dude? NOE: No, put the nails first, Khalil, and then do the&.<br><br> NOE: Okay, put it on the ruler, Aisha. (Noe walks over to Khalil 9s group, Aisha ties to balance her figure on the ruler) NOE: (returns to Aisha 9s table ) Okay, are we going to try them both down? Okay.<br><br> That seems like a good idea. Why do we want to keep the weight down? Ai: Because if we keep the weight down, it will not tip over.<br><br> NOE: Okay, you want to try it out? It 9s not keeping balance yet. Have you noticed it 9s tipping over this way?<br><br> Every time I put& like I put&this way. Maybe it 9s because if we look at our weight, it 9s falling this way. So maybe we should try to be a little more&.<br><br> NOE: Monica, could you take this girl to Mr. Davis 9 office? (Talking about another youth) Taisha.<br><br> She 9s got to go.   23   NOE: Okay, so now we put our arms at a different position and they 9re kind of like, straight. And remember our weight&our weight is down.<br><br> Okay. You want to try that out? Ai: It tipped over this way.<br><br> NOE: Okay. So that 9s not working either. Let 9s try& maybe by keeping our arms&one here and one here (Noe moves dowels to bottom of foam body ).<br><br> NOE: Do you think that will work David? What do you think about this one? It 9s kind of crooked.<br><br> See? That may have something to do with our weight, see? Cause the legs are kind of like that way.<br><br> So, I 9m going to try to do is& Da: Pull one up and one down (make legs even length) NOE: Okay, now that looks a little more straight, right? What do you think is going to happen now David? Da: It 9s still going to fall.<br><br> NOE: It 9s still gonna fall? (Noe balances toy. It stays on ruler) Da: Oh.<br><br> NOE: Okay? What happened? Why is it keeping balance?<br><br> We can have it in different positions, we can move it. (Noe taps body and ruler, but figure stays) Ai: I know why. Because the legs&I mean the hands are going straight down, but it 9s not& like, right here, like down here.<br><br> It 9s down here, because it won 9t tip over. NOE: You want to put it again? Maybe I did something wrong.<br><br> Maybe it 9s going to tip over now. Ai: (places figure on ruler) Nope. NOE: No?<br><br> But notice that it 9s bulging over this way? What we might have to do&Check out the nails. This leg has the nails up and this nail has the legs down.<br><br> So maybe if I pull this one up a little more, they 9re sort of even. Ai: But I don 9t think they 9re going to fall. NOE: See?<br><br> And still it tips over that way (referring to slight tilt in body alignment, not falling off ruler) So, maybe we 9ll get the weight down this way? ? (moves nails down to very end of dowels ) Our nails all the way down to the end.<br><br> Okay? You did it? Ai: No.<br><br>   24   NOE: Okay. (picks figure up off ruler and adjusts nails) . We don 9t want these nails to fall out.<br><br> Okay. NOE: (places figure back on ruler) There it is guys, straight up. So, you see, David, when we have as much weight as our arms& Maybe that 9s&have you ever seen monkeys in the trees?<br><br> You notice how their hands are like, really huge and they can almost touch their feet? That 9s why they walk like this (with arms down ), because if they were to walk like that, (with arms outstretched) maybe that 9s not a good idea. So, our balance, our middle point& our balance point is exactly right here.<br><br> It 9s our feet. It 9s our feet. This is not it.<br><br> (pointing to arms) NOE: It 9s right here, okay? Cause over here on top, we don 9t have any weight. All our weight is down here.<br><br> So if our feet is concentrated on being on the right point &(Noe gets up from table) 31:03 NOE: Okay, ladies and gentlemen (to whole group) NOE: Okay, I want you to grab your toys&your balancing toys and I want you to meet me on the rug. NOE: Why was this different from, like, the top or the boat? What was the difference between this and the boat, Joe?<br><br> Remember when we did the boat last week? Jo: Umm& It 9s different because the boat didn 9t have legs. NOE: The boat didn 9t have legs.<br><br> Right. So was different about&Khalil&having the nails on the second guy and the first guy had ,like, really huge arms. What was the difference when you were trying to balance it on your ruler?<br><br> Ka: With those (short dowels), it wouldn 9t work. NOE: It wouldn 9t work? So , for example& Ka: It wouldn 9t work as good.<br><br> NOE: It wouldn 9t work as good. NOE: Okay, so let 9s try to get something&So, Joe. Khalil just said that the long arms, the 20- inch dowels will actually be better than the 10-inch dowels with the nails.<br><br> What do you think about that? Do you think that the ones with the nails work better or the long arms work better? Jo: The ones with the nails work better because ours was balancing when we did it.<br><br> NOE: Okay, so we 9ve got different ideas. So were you able to balance yours with the nails, Miranda?   25   Mir: Yes.<br><br> NOE: What did you do to keep it balanced? Mir: We put it down low. We putted the hands down low and we tried it and it just balanced.<br><br> NOE: Okay, where did you keep the arms? Did you keep the arms straight down? Or did you have the arms on the side?<br><br> F: In the side. NOE: In the side? And it worked?<br><br> Mir: To keep it balanced. NOE: To keep it balanced. NOE: Now Corey, when you were first doing the first guy with the really long arms, what was one of the first things that you did to try to see if it balanced?<br><br> Did you have the arms out? or in a V? (demonstrates with own arms) Cor: Had it out.<br><br> NOE: Out? And why did you think that was going to work? Cor: Ummm...<br><br> (pause) NOE: Cause it 9s just logical, right? When you guys are, for example, on the edge of something and you 9re trying to get there, all of a sudden, you get your arms out. Or when you 9re walking, and you 9re about& you trip, did you ever notice?<br><br> The first thing& (demonstrating arms out stretched to keep balance). NOE: So, now, what we learned today is that, when we are having our little toys or little acrobats, the center point or the point of interest was our legs. Because our legs was what 9s keeping our weight.<br><br> Even if put the arms up, our legs had a lot to do with keeping our toy in balance. NOE: Because, what would have happened if I were to put the legs really long? David, what do you think&.instead of having one inch legs we were having like two inch?<br><br> What do you think would happen? Do you think it affects the way our toy balances on the ruler if our legs are larger? Da: Yeah.<br><br> NOE: Why?   26   Da: I don 9t know. NOE: Okay.<br><br> Anyone wants to&Aisha.. if we have&if our legs on our toy were longer than just the one-inch legs, do you think that would affect the outcome? Of our balancing toys?<br><br> Ai: I don 9t know. NOE: You don 9t know. Okay, anybody has any thoughts?<br><br> Miranda? Mir: It wouldn 9t balance. NOE: It wouldn 9t balance.<br><br> Okay, well, the point with this guys is that our point is right here. This is&remember, if we had very long legs, okay? It 9s harder to maintain the balance because we have a lot more to travel from here to here (from tip of long dowel to foam) than from here to here (from tip of short dowel to foam) .<br><br> So, there 9s got to be more of a secure balancing state for a little guy. NOE: Now, the last thing I want to question, guys, is what do you think of the balancing toy activity of today? Did it interest you?<br><br> Youth: I liked it. Youth: I liked it better than the boats. NOE: What did you like about it?<br><br> It was funny? Youth: It was fun and I liked it. Youth: I didn 9t think it would balance with those nails on it.<br><br> NOE: Okay, do you want to give it a try before we end our conversation? Youth: No. NOE: Okay, well, here 9s one guy with two feet and they 9re one inch and we 9ve got&Corey, we got bulk.<br><br> We got a weight. Whoop, we dropped one leg&. NOE: You want to put this one on the ruler and see if it balances, Corey?<br><br> Okay, there you go. Corey 9s going put it on this ruler.. .Aisha, Nia said that maybe it wouldn 9t balance.<br><br> So now Corey 9s going to put it on the ruler to try it out. So if anybody couldn 9t do it, Corey 9s going to try to do it now. NOE: There it is.<br><br> Let 9s see if we move it& (taps ruler) Well, I dropped it but it did balance! END of DISC

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