Comparing Eggs and Pumpkins

To prepare for our Family STEM Night Engineering Challeng: Pumpkin Drop, the class went to the Science Lab to compare an egg and a pumpkin.  We began by telling how an egg and a pumpkin are alike and different. Next, we cracked open the egg to learn more about its properties. Then came the pumpkin! The scholars really got into feeling the inside of an egg and the inside of a pumpkin! The scholars will be using this information as well as their learning from the Egg Drop Challenge to design and build their item that will keep the pumpkin from cracking, denting or breaking.

Family STEM Night

Engineering: Egg Drop

This week was all about eggs! The scholars applied their Science skills by observing/identifying the properties of eggs and applied their mathematical knowledge of measurement to find out how much their egg weighed. The scholars then used this information about eggs to complete the Engineering Challenge: Egg Drop. Next, the scholars will take what they have learned from this challenge and apply it to our Family STEM Night Engineering Challenge......Pumpkin Drop!

Carter and Eleanor's design was a 'special' trampoline, they added paper towels inside the bag for extra cushion; it worked!

Liam and Niklas designed a trampoline and they were successful!

Aidan and Samantha designed a trampoline and were successful!

Ariana and Nolan's design was a pillow using a brown bag stuffed with paper towels; it worked!

Gavin and Sherif's design was a tiny pillow using a brown bag and toilet paper; it worked!

Ashaz and Elle's design was a 'special' blanket. They used newspaper and a plastic bag, the plastic bag was tapped to the dish pan to illustrate the blanket being on a bed; it worked!

Ella and Tate's design was inspired by firefighters. They created the 'blanket' that firefighters hold for people to jump onto when trapped in a burning building.  Their first attempt did not work, but after reviewing their video they made some modifications (didn't pull so tight) and tested again....2nd attempt worked!

Michael and Logan's design was a trampoline.  Their 1st test did not keep the egg from cracking. After reviewing their video they made a modification and tested again; this time the egg did not crack!  

Egg Drop Engineering Challenge

We began our next engineering challenge:  Egg Drop. As an introduction, we went to the science lab to investigate eggs! Each pair was given hand lens, a balance scale and unifix cubes. They were given the task of learning as much about the egg as possible using their 5 Senses and the tools. They had a blast making observations and sharing the egg's properties. I think they are very excited to learn their challenge!

We Planted Today!

The scholars have been learning about: growing/changing, needs/wants, living/nonliving these past couple weeks. They have also been seeing relationships between plants and animals (people). So today to have first hand experience in how things grow and change as well as needs of a plant and the plant life cycle, we planted Asian Carrot seeds. While planting, the scholars also utilized some math in the way of measurement.

Celebrating Our Writing

We completed our first writing focus, teaching books. Sharing our books with each other was so much fun!

Cannon's Food Drive