Where to begin?

Last year as the school year came to a close, I began to clean and pack during break times. While doing this, I came across some materials left over from the previous teacher that I had not yet found after three years being in the classroom. The Air Force had produced this packet of information which included a booklet with lab instructions and three posters all dealing with the scientific principles behind flight. When I opened the posters and read them, I audibly laughed as did the students who were helping me clean. We laughed, not because the information was childish or outdated, but rather the overt corniness of them. Now don't get me wrong. I'm all about making the corny pun, but these just went too far. The third one is my favorite. Also, not only were they English on one side; they were also written in Spanish on the other side.

Although we laughed at these, it got us thinking. I told my students that it would be fun to include these in a classroom theme somehow. This is where our creative journey started.

First, it was "Oh, we could do a space theme." I didn't care much for that because I don't teach earth space science, and, although I could relate it to my subjects, I wasn't sold on that idea.

As we continued to throw out ideas while cleaning, one of the students mentioned something about hot air balloons and other flying objects besides just airplanes, rockets, and shuttles. We even thought of a way to make little hot air balloons to hang from the ceiling using paper lanterns, twine, and little baskets. From there we thought, well,  where are places that you might see hot air balloons. Carnivals. Yes, you might see them at a carnival or fair. I liked this idea since all of the rides at a fair or carnival work because of physics principles. We would be studying basic physics the following year.

I was then concerned that going the fair or carnival route might get too childish. There really should be a balance when it comes to classroom decorations. Fun, informative, but not too childish. It was based on this that I developed the idea of making a science theme/amusement park. Many amusement parks have fair type rides, and ,at one time, maybe even had hot air balloons. My helpers liked that idea as well and agreed it would be more age appropriate for them.

It was here that the plans for building Atomic World began.