Summer Camps for Engineering

If you are looking for some fun day camps in the area that will keep your scholar engaged in STEM activities I have found a few that you may want to check out.  This list is not a comprehensive list, rather just a few that I caught my eye based on my scholars.  Also during Young Engineer's Night, there will be more information about camps your scholar may want to check out.

Destination Science:  Robots, superheroes, rockets and more! Full and Half Day Sessions Located @ Crown of Life Lutheran Church in Colleyville  For more information go to https://www.activityhero.com/biz/2676-destination-science-colleyville-tx

Play-Well TEKnologies LEGO Inspired Engineering:  for a complete list of camps offered, dates, times and places go to:  http://play-well.org/schedule/class/list/county/Tarrant/county_id/163/sort/2/type/camp

Camp Invent @www.campinvention.org
Once you click on the link there will be a tab, Parents, click on this for a drop-down menu, select Day Camps. There will be a place for you to enter your zipcode and this will take you to a list of camps in our area.

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History:  STEM Camp K-2 August 3-6 1:00-4:00 see the link for additional information:  http://www.fortworthmuseum.org/sites/default/files/STEM_CAMP_2016_K-2_Flyer.pdf 
*I actually was one of the teachers last year at this camp and may I say it was a BLAST!

We're Learning About Plants!

Our newest Science unit of study is Plants and boy do my scholars possess a great deal of plant schema! Today's focus was the needs of a plant. The scholars quickly identified: water, air, sunlight, soil and nutrients. To illustrate these needs, we created seed necklaces. Each scholar was given a small baggie. We put a seed and then water beads of different colors into the bag. Blue represents water, yellow represents sunlight, clear represents air and orange represents soil. They will wear the necklace around their neck for 7 days to provide the warmth that is needed. After about 7 days, the seeds should sprout and we will then transplant the sprout to continue observing the plant life cycle.

Test and Improve

Today was a big day for the Gingerbread Man, the partners were going to test their designs!  Each pair began by making any final adjustments to their designs before testing. Then the testing got under way and our classroom was filled with anticipation and excitement. Some designs were successful the first time while others needed to make some improvements. As each pair finished their testing, they took some time to explain their design and why it worked.

Ariana, Samantha and Ella designed and engineered a Sailboat.  With the help of their 'strong winds', the GBM made it safely across without getting wet!

This is Tate and Nolan's 1st zip line.  The GBM fell out of the chair and into the water so they went back to the Improve Stage.

Tate and Nolan actually went to Improve a total of 2 times before these BIG smiles filled their faces.  Their 1st Improve was the chair...it was successful; but the chair did not go down the line.  2nd Improve: they switched from yarn to a wire for the line, they also put the starting point of the zip line higher....this time the GBM slid to safety!

This is actually Michael and Sherif's Improved bridge.  They improved the ramp leading up/down to the bridge.  The GBM was able to cross the river without getting wet!

A Happy Sherif and Michael!  *Evan was a part of this group, but he was sick on testing day.

This bridge design was engineered by Aidan and Aariz.  They felt safety was a priority so they added side rails.  Also they explained the zig-zag placement of the cups/supports: they created balance and stability (their words!).

Two happy boys: Aariz and Aidan!

This is another bridge design by: Eleanor, Elle and Carter.  It was Eleanor's idea to make a ladder type walk-up to the bridge and Elle designed a regular ramp to run down FAST!

Carter was explaining to the class that it was his idea to design a suspension type bridge. again providing more support and "It makes it look really cool!"

Eleanor, Elle and Carter's bridge design was successful.  Eleanor was not here to see this but I know she will be excited!

This is actually Michael and Sherif's 1st bridge.  They went back to the Improve Stage because the ramps leading up to the bridge kept falling and it was agreed they were too steep.  

Evan, Michael and Sherif's bridge design

Tate and Nolan's Zip line design

Ella, Samantha and Ariana's Sailboat design

Aidan and Aariz's bridge design

Eleanor, Elle and Carter's bridge design

Graphing At Home

Two of my scholars, Tate and Aariz, took what we were learning about Graphing home. These boys found items they had at home and created their own graph. They then brought their graphs to school and challenged our class to write questions for their graphs. We had a blast writing questions for these two amazing graphs!

Day 2 of The Gingerbread Man

Day 2 began with a mini lesson about being purposeful or intentional in our material selection as-well-as how much is needed. The scholars were then sent off to chat with their partner about the design and materials. They were instructed to write up their material list and the amount needed for each. I was most impressed with the conversations the pairs were having, they really showed they were really thinking about the design. One person from the group was the materials collector. Their job was to bring me their list of materials. I also told the class that as they were constructing if they found they needed more of something or an item they had not initially requested, they could come back to me for more....the catch....they had to be able to explain why they needed more or why they needed the new material.

As I walked around to observe, question or lend a hand I was most impressed with the quality of the construction. I believe that by having the scholars be more intentional with their materials they were slowing down and being more purposeful with each step. 

Engineering with The Gingerbread Man

We are knee deep in our next fairy tale engineering unit....The Gingerbread Man. Our initial focus was on retelling the story and creating a Double Bubble Map comparing two versions of the story. After this, we delved into a discussion about how the story could have had a happier ending had the Gingerbread Man thought of a different way to cross the stream. This was perfect because it got the scholars ready for their engineering problem.

The Problem: How can we as engineers design a way to help the Gingerbread Man cross the river without getting wet?

We Imagined: a zip line, jet pack to fly across, stepping stones to run or hop across, a boat, a bridge or even find a way to go around.

Next we Asked: 

What do we know:  GBM cannot swim, GBM will fall apart if he gets wet, cannot trust an animal or person for help

What we need to know:  How big/heavy is the GBM, how wide is the river, what materials will sink or float, best plan and how to build.

From here, we turned our attention back to the Imagine and decided on the best ideas: zip line, bridge or boat. The scholars then decided on the idea/plan they wanted to engineer.

Next came materials. We came up with 8 different materials that could be used by one or all of our ideas. We spent time discussing how we might use each material in the different designs.

Now, the scholars were ready to draw their designs and make their material selections.

GHS Football Visits Cannon

Tuesday during our study of poetry, we got a BIG surprise....our door opened and in walked 3 GHS Mustang Football Players and their coach, Coach Jackson. After introductions, one of the players read an Elephant and Piggie, our favorite. We loved our surprise!

Word Movers

During word work the scholars worked in pairs to make as many words as possible. They used an app called, Word Movers to record the words they were able to make.

The letters they used were: a, e, h,  r, t

These are the words the scholars were able to make: a, he, at, art, the, ear, are, rat, tea, her, hat, eat, ate, hate, rate, hear, tear.  They were able to make not one but two secret words! The secret words were: heart or Earth.

These scholars are doing such a terrific job applying their knowledge of letters, sounds and words!

Engineering Vehicles

We finished our study of Geometry with an engineering challenge, design and construct a vehicle using everyday items that represent 3D shapes. This engineering challenge not only enabled the scholars to apply their knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes, they also learned about different types of vehicles, their purpose, parts and how they are powered.

The scholars initial thinking of vehicles was limited to cars, trucks, vans, buses, trains and planes. However their thinking changed once they defined a vehicle: a thing that moves people or items from one place to another. Our list of vehicles really changed and now included: sleds, bikes, scooters, skateboards, tanks, sailboats, rowboats and even a horse. The horse spurred a big discussion because it is a living thing while everything else was man made. In the end the class did agree that a horse could get a person or things from one place to another, but they kept it off the list because it was living.

We also learned about a vehicles energy source. We learned that vehicles can run on: gasoline, special gas made from plants like corn and peanuts but they are costly, electricity and even some use solar energy. We noted that there was a place in Grapevine that you could park your electric car and plug it in to charge while you shop and eat! We looked at vehicles and their parts to identify 2D and 3D shapes too.

After all this, the scholars decided on the vehicle they wanted to design and engineer. Once they drew their design, they began gathering their materials and engineered their vehicles.