Sound Waves

3rd and 4th graders have been working very hard on our new wave unit. The vocabulary is new and challenging. We are so excited about the enthusiasm they are showing and the effort they are putting into understanding each task. We have been talking about sound needing a "medium" or type of matter to travel through. Students created telephones using different types of cups and string to see what worked best. We also learned that without a solid, liquid or gas sound cannot travel. So fun!

Stop Motion Erosion....

3rd and 4th graders began creating Stop Motion videos to describe a type of erosion and how it impacts humans. Students are then designing a solution to slow down the erosion and lessen the impact. As usual, we are so excited by the work we are seeing! Stay tuned for some finished pieces :)

Another Day of Innovation

When we begin Innovation Days, we could not begin to imagine the creativity we would see with the students. From sewing to wood construction to alarms that go off when a backpack is opened, we are so proud of the learning that is taking place.

More Erosion...

As we continue our work with Weathering and Erosion we have been learning about wind and glaciers. Students have been experimenting by building models to recreate real world scenarios.

Innovation Friday #1

What an amazing day! Today was the STEM lab's very first Innovation Friday. Students were put into one of seven different stations and will work in that station for four Fridays. Our goal is that by the end of the year, all students will have had the opportunity to work through all seven stations. Stations include; construction, Lego Robotics, Coding, Sewing, Lego building, Little Bits Circuits, and 3-D printing. Students will be working through some given tasks as well as designing and creating their own work. Through these tasks, they are working on problem solving, communication, leadership and much more. Today was spent going over expectations and safety. As usual, the students exceeded even our highest expectations. Keep checking back as we move through the year for updates and student work.

Weathering and Erosion Walk

Students went out into the woods to try to find real examples of weathering and erosion. They took pictures as evidence. We had a lot of fun and were impressed with how many different examples they were able to find.

Weathering and Erosion

We are deep into our Weathering and Erosion unit and the amazing connections the students are making is truly awesome! They have been soaking up all the new concepts and vocabulary. From learning the difference between physical and chemical weathering to recognizing water erosion around our community, we could not be more proud of the enthusiasm and learning taking place.

Getting to Work

Now that we know each other a little better we have gotten to work! We spent this week practicing our measuring and data collection. We created beanstalks and measured all the leaves - this was a lot of work! We continued to see students encouraging each other and helping each other. What an amazing group of kids :)

A New Year!

We are so excited to be starting our second year with our Innovation Lab/STEM class!! We have so many fun things planned and cannot wait to get learning. We have started the year building a safe and supportive community of learners. We mixed 3rd and 4th graders for some challenging tasks. The outcome was a lot of fun and many giggles. We also talked about how important it is to never give up, support each other in times of need and keep a positive outlook.

Roller Coaster Finals

Students have worked hard to use what they have learned and apply it to their own unique roller coaster designs. See some of their work....

Roller Coasters

We are continuing our work with gravity and having SO much fun! Students are designing and building roller coasters that use their knowledge of gravity, force and motion as well as friction to complete different missions each day. Stay tuned for pictures and videos of what they are doing!

Gravity

STEM students have begun learning all about gravity. We learned that gravity does NOT pull things down, but pulls things towards the center of the Earth. We've had some amazing conversations about what "down" even means when the world is round. We have started designing parachutes that can fall slowly and safely. Next we will work on roller coasters......

Conservation of Mass

STEM students are learning about the Conservation of Mass. We've explored questions like:
If you melt an ice cube, does it weight more as a solid or a liquid?
If you break a cookie, does it change the weight?
Can we predict the weight of lemonade if we know the weight of the water and the mix?

Today we began to look at creating new substances by mixing different substances. We started by making Super Slime. It was messy but so much fun!!

We MATTER!

This week students in 3-5 STEM classes started their new Physical Science unit- MATTER!  We began the unit  reviewing the states of matter that we learned in second grade.  Those states are solids, liquids and gasses.  We also acted out how those states exist- we learned that particles make EVERYTHING and how the particles act determine the state a material lives in.  

The students above are acting out gas and liquid (the rug was a "container: the material was put in).  Students just wiggled close together when they were a solid, like ice put into a cup.  Students were able to move freely around the rug while touching at least one classmates shoulders to model a liquid, like water.  Students were able to move freely and quickly (but safely!) around our classroom to model a gas, like steam! 

Students also explored particles through observation.  We learned particles are SO small, that we can't see them!  We practiced scientific drawings with what we can see with our eyes, and then compared it to what we see with a new fancy tool, the microscope! 

Although our high school microscopes aren't strong enough to allow us to see individual particles, it showed us that there is a LOT more to any object, than what meets the eye!  What a fun week! 

Stay tuned for what we do next week: Science Court!