Constructing Models

Students are hard at work in our construction space. We have students working with the construction tools, some students are working with a great 3D app, while others are designing with a combination of both. The creativity in this school is amazing!

Teacher Tank Presentations

There are truly no words to describe the amazing students here at BFA Fairfax! We asked them to identify a problem and create a solution....we never anticipated the level at which they would surpass our expectations. With ideas such as auto drop boxes to feed hungry children to bracelets to calm frustration, we were left speechless. We cannot wait to see what comes next...

Demonstration Day

STEM students had the opportunity to learn about the options that will be available to them as they create and design their solutions. Mrs. Siemons shared the technology options such as the 3D scanner, circuit boards and apps, while Mr. Reynolds was a guest teacher to share how to safely use our construction table and tools. SO MUCH FUN!!

We also watched a funny Kid Snippets video...

Problems and Solutions

We are so excited for the next three weeks in the Innovation Lab! Students will be asked to identify a problem in their lives and design a solution. We will be working hard at researching what others have already done, tackling problems we might encounter and celebrating our inventive minds! Students will have access to multiple resources to design their solutions. Stay tuned for updates as we enter this next phase and don't forget to sign up to follow the blog via email (see upper right had corner).

We have just finished up the end of our first 9 week rotation. By looking back at our vision, we felt that we accomplished so much and now are prepared to move forward and tackle even more. After Thanksgiving, STEM will do a three week student led  problem based learning session. Mrs. Siemons will be introducing the students to new technology that they can choose to use in their project. This will be a fun adventure and the start of many more.

Here are just some pictures of from the last session of Earth Patterns where the students learn about the Earth's rotation and how it affects them. Probably the most surprising they learned was how a clock represents the movement of shadows from the Sun. I would love for us to build a Sundial.

STEM students learned about Photosynthesis. We ended our day with a spontaneous dance party. Science is so much fun!!

New STEM mini units!

Today we started our third and final rotation in our Earth Science Unit! This rotation will lead us right up until Thanksgiving break.

Government Kick Off

3rd, 4th, and 5th graders discussed why we have a government and what that looks like. We looked at the preamble to the Constitution along with the three branches of the government. We will be  starting a 3-5 Legislature. All students will be able to suggest ideas and with the help of the elected representatives, we may see some great changes coming soon. 

More pictures!

Drone Day!

STEM students had an amazing opportunity to suggest changes to their community and learn about drone technology too! The town of Fairfax is working with UVM to map the Main Street corridor as part of a study to make improvements. Students were able to see the drone and ask questions as it took pictures of our town. 3rd, 4th and 5th graders are also being asked for their ideas to improve our town. Some current ideas being suggested by students include.....

Bike paths, A public pool, Larger sidewalks, A stoplight, More maple trees, and a "Welcome to Fairfax"sign. 

                                               

In the Earth Patterns STEM class, we ended our three week session by using sundials outside and also seeing just how huge our Solar System is let alone the universe. It truly is amazing! The students also completed the CER which is a paragraph about their learning. First they made a claim, which had to do with the Earth patterns found in shadows. Then they had to share their evidence which was the data collected on shadow lengths throughout the day and their observations of the sundial. Finally they had reason or explain the "therefore" of this which is that the Earth rotates.  I was able to send home most of the students' house maps with their compass rose so they could determine where North, West, and South were in their house too.

Photosynthesis Models

Students created 3D models to show their learning. The final projects were SO AMAZING!! They have once again surpassed my expectations. WOW!

Me and My Shadow

I am very happy we measured shadows on Wednesday! Yesterday would have been okay but Wednesday was perfect! We saw even saw the moon and took pictures to see it move across the sky. It was interesting to the students to see how the shadows were long in the morning and grew shorter towards lunch time and then grew long again. This was a cooperative effort between all three cores because they shared the paper that recorded the data. Yesterday we then graphed the data. The purpose is to see that the Earth has predictable patterns. I am wondering how a sundial would look on our school grounds.

Students spent time learning about Photosynthesis and how it works. We learned how water molecules and carbon dioxide come together and with the help of the sun's energy turn into glucose and oxygen. Students used the elements Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen to prove why it works. So cool!

Students set up their Schoology accounts with our friend, Mrs. Siemons.  Students were able to see where they can find videos and games or links that their teachers post for them in their classes!  We are very excited to be able to use this in our school.

Students have been working hard to learn the many components that come together to create a "Food Chain."  They have learned that all food chains start with a "producer" which is a plant that gets it's energy from the sun through photosynthesis.  Primary and Secondary Consumers eat the Producers.  Consumers can continue the flow of energy until they die, when "decomposers" help break down the animal or plant which returns them to soil to help the producer grow all over again!  Today students explored the three main types of Consumers: Omnivores, Herbivores and Carnivores.  Here they are, sorting many animals.  We all found that we had at least one misconception about what animals eat!  

Rotation Rotation Rotation

It takes only 8 minutes for the Sun's energy (heat and light) to reach our planet even though it is 92,000,000 miles away! The Sun is our star and even though it looks like the biggest star in the Universe, it is only medium size. Why all this talk about the Sun? The students are learning about the Earth's rotation which causes day and night. We use this to help measure time. So we have been practicing rotating (spinning)(Time: 24 hours) and we will see how this is very different this is from revolving which is the Earth moving around the Sun (Time: 1 year)

Today, one group of students planted bean sprouts so we can watch them grow under different circumstances. We have water vs. no water, sunlight vs. no sunlight, air vs. no air and different types of soil. We will continue to observe over the next couple of weeks, so stayed tuned...

We also started the discussion about how plants get water. We dissected stalks of celery and made some amazing observations. We will start to talk about the parts of a plant and how energy from the sun feeds the plants.

Our First Engineering Challenge

3rd, 4th and 5th graders worked in multi-age teams to practice perseverance, teamwork, self-control and CARES. They should all be so proud of their hard work!