Christina Leija is dealing with a spider infestation. She hasn’t been especially fond of arachnids since she was bitten by a brown recluse as a youngster, and now spiders of all sorts, sizes and colors are running amok in her classroom.
The array of spiders are the creations of Leija’s fifth-grade Eisenhower Elementary School Makerspace students who are concluding a unit of study on life sciences. They have especially been looking at the hydraulic system of how spiders move their legs.
To demonstrate what they have learned, students used a variety of materials to construct their own spiders. While there are tens of thousands of species of spiders, you probably won’t find the ones in Leija’s classroom in any textbooks.
Mickenzie Chissell used marshmallows, spaghetti strands, two straws, popsicle sticks, a paper towel and clay to make what she called a marshmallow spider. Chissell said she was trying to make hers a square so it would stand up a little bit.
“When I am done with it, I will try to have the marshmallows on top of it,” she said.
Chissell said she isn’t especially fond of spiders, because “some are venomous and they will kill you. But if they were nice, then yes” she would like them. She said she likes them a little better now that she has studied them.
“Spiders don’t have any bones. They can move their legs toward them. Some spiders are poisonous. They make a web, when prey is stuck on the web, they get them with their venom and suck their blood out,” she said of some of the things she has learned.
Mason Price made a jumping spider out of four marshmallows and three spaghetti strands. He said the long spaghetti strand was the web, with the spider at the end.
“I’m making a jumping spider because they are small,” he said. “They have a big abdomen that shoots out a web.”
Brelon Starr made a tarantula out of cardboard, popsicle sticks and spaghetti. Starr said he chose a tarantula because he saw one in his house and thinks it waved at him.
He learned that spiders “have eight legs and when they die, they curl up into a ball.”
Making the 3D spiders was not the last lesson on arachnids. Next, the students will make spiders out of LEGOs as an introduction to robotics.