Students are tasked with rescuing Fred the gummy worm using only paper clips. Fred is trapped under an overturned plastic cup boat with his life preserver also trapped. Students must follow three rules: Fred cannot fall in the "lake" (table), he cannot be injured, and only paper clips can be used. The assignment is to write a procedure explaining how to rescue Fred step-by-step using only paper clips. Students will also describe any problems encountered and rate the difficulty and enjoyment of the activity.

1. An Inquiry-Based Lesson

2. Fred has been spending his summer boating
on Table Rock Lake.
Poor Fred! He was sailing along on a
boat (your plastic cup) when a strong
wind blew it upside-down.

3. Fred (your gummy worm) ended up on top of the
upside-down boat. Unfortunately for Fred, his life
preserver (the gummy life saver) is still trapped under
the boat.

4. Your job is to place the life preserver
firmly around Fred’s body,
but you must follow these three rules:
1. Fred may not fall into the “lake” (onto the table or
floor). If he does, he “drowns.”
1. You may not injure him in any way. (No stabbing
him with paper clips)
2. You may use only the paper clips to move Fred, the
boat, and the life preserver. You may not touch
anything with your fingers except the paper clips.

5. HOW TO GET STRIKES
 Noise level too loud
 Not working in groups
 Groups fighting/ using mean language
 Not responding to Mrs. Henley
 Sharing what you did with other groups.
 Not working on your lab (the paper you will turn in)
 Touching the worm, cup, or lifesaver with anything
other than the paperclips.
 Anything that does not follow Rule #4, and Rule #5
 3 STRIKES and you’re OUT!!!

6. On your paper
 Each person hands in their own paper for their grade.
 1. What is the Problem?
 2. What could you do to research this problem? What
topics would you research?
 3. What would your hypothesis be…? Think about
what you think will work.

7. Your assignment DURING the lab
 You will work to “SAVE FRED”
 IF YOU SAVE HIM… You will work writing down your
procedure sharing with us how you did it… step by
step. This is called a procedure. It should be written
in short simple sentences…
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.

8. What did you and your partners
do to save Fred?
People face problems in their lives every day.
What did you learn from this activity that you
can use to solve other problems?

9.  Describe How You Saved Fred!
 Problems and/or Challenges your group encountered!
 Rate the difficulty of this activity from 1-5 by shading
in the stars below. (1 = easy, 5 = hard)
 Rate your enjoyment of this activity from 1-5 by
shading in the stars below. (1 = no fun, 5 = too much
fun)

10. Bell work about Saving Fred
 1. Which problem that you encountered was the most difficult for your
group? What did you do or how did you act to solve the problem?
 2. List one thing that you would do the same and one thing that you
would change if you attempted this challenge again.
Keep the Same Change
 3. Rate the difficulty of this activity from 1-5 and explain why. (1 = easy,
5 = hard)
 4. Rate your enjoyment of this activity from 1-5 and explain why (1 = no
fun, 5 = too much fun)

11. You can solve problems in many different ways. In fact, you may
use more than one way to solve a single problem. You can
• develop a plan.
• find a pattern.
• draw a picture or a diagram.
• act out the problem.
• make a list.
• guess and test.
• work backward.
• write an equation.
• construct a table or graph.
• simplify the problem.
• use objects to model the problem.