When all vehicles are working well, the teacher calls for a final gallery walk. They refine their rules of thumb one more time, and then they revisit the whiteboard, identifying answers to some of the questions they had asked previously, adding new facts they've learned, refining their design ideas, and revising their learning issues. An important teacher role here is to help students use scientific vocabulary they've been introduced to.
Students realize that while they now understand some things about keeping a vehicle going, they still have many questions about getting a vehicle going. The teacher asks them how they got their coaster cars going. They used a ramp, and gravity provided the force that got the cars moving. This discussion provides an opportunity to discuss gravity and to identify it as a force. The teacher also asks students what they can use to get their vehicles going if they don't have gravity available. Students are able to refer back to the cars they messed about with and to real-world vehicles they know about (bicycles, automobiles, airplanes) and to recognize that they need to give their vehicles some kind of engine that will apply a force to cause them to move. Students are now ready to add propulsion to their cars.
But first we take them through one detour. We ask them to think about what they've been doing and to review the practices they've been engaging in (fair testing, communicating clearly, explaining scientifically) and the LBD™ Cycle.
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