Do giants exist?

Build a beanstalk in your classroom and go on the hunt for giants in your school and community.   Mark the heights of the tallest man in the world and the smallest man in the world on your beanstalk.   Add each member of your class and visitors to your classroom.   Make your beanstalk extra interesting by adding some tall and short celebrities, sports people or animals.

Come up with a list of advantages to being the tallest person or the shortest person in the world.   Think about what would be easier or what would be more challenging.

Watch the video below to see what happened when the Guinness World Records team introduced the tallest man in the world to the shortest man in the world in 2015.

 

Information for teachers

This is a highly engaging investigation that has been tried and tested in many of our Primary classrooms in Queensland.   The engagement levels of the students are higher than the beanstalk and many classes have even seen increased parent engagement levels when parents drop in to be measured and added to the beanstalks.

I received a particularly touching email about this investigation a year or so after sharing it at one of our Early Phase conferences.   It was from a teacher who had implemented this investigation in our Early Years classroom.   Several months after beginning the investigation with students, she spotted a man in military uniform walking through the school grounds.   Approaching him, she asked if she could help.   He replied that he had returned from his tour and his son had insisted that one of the first things he had to do when her returned home was be measured and added to the class beanstalk.     She told me of the joy the beanstalk and investigation had brought to her classroom and how it had managed to bring more Dads into the classroom as the children wanted to see just how they compared to the tallest man in the world.

If you have a great experience with this investigation or any of our intriguing investigations, we would love to hear about it.  Email me at kristine@eq.edu.au or post your own experiences or ideas in the comments section below.