4th Grade Solar Cookers! Bring on the S'mores!

Fourth Grade has been busy contructing solar ovens in our effort to to learn more about Environmental Engineering and alternate forms of energy.  Some of the questions we are asking:

How do you cook with the sun?
How do solar panels turn the sun into electricity?
How do people use solar cookers to improve their lives?

Shealyn and Kellen

Aiden and Tyler

 

Max and Zane

 

Jacob and Johnny and Evan




Michael M.

Ashlyn H.

5th Grade: Moving Parts!

Fifth grade dismantled their first mindstorms challenge, and have been building a small robot that they will be able to program themselves.  Along the building process, we have been testing the robot's brick, or brain, to make sure it is connected properly to all moving parts like motors and wheels.  Some of our group was able to test sound sensors so that when we made a noise like clapping, our robot would change direction.
See our short videos below:

Gerontology, Who You Calling Old? Grades 1-3

Our study of Gerontology led 1st-3rd grades, first, to watch the youtube video, Mr. Six's Introductory Ad for Six Flags.  We talked about why it was funny in a positive way!  Most of us agreed we were not used to

 seeing older people dancing like that and recognized that this person was an actor.  These observations led us to a discussion on who is the oldest person we knew and then we predicted what life would be like for the elderly in 2050.  We also discussed what things we could do to make our own aging process positive:  eating healthy, exercising, having hobbies, etc.  When we interviewed our grannies and grandpas, we found out that some of them had a phone hooked to the wall and you had to dial it to get it to call.  Then, you had to share your calls with others on a party line!  Weird!  We constructed cards for the elderly living in Richmond who might not get very much mail and Christmas.

Love My Cetaceans!

Grades 1st-3rd dove into the Cetalogy, the study of whales, this past month.  We took some measurements in our hallway to try and understand how big some of these mammals are.  How does a blue whale get so big as to fill our hallway, but it only eats little bitty animals like krill?  Having teeth doesn't help you very much if you are a whale and you eat plankton, but being baleen does!  We investigated the difference in how baleen and toothed whales eat with a comb, toothbrush and a jar filled with water and black pepper and got to see
(Click below to see individual 3rd grade research as well)

5th Grade's First Robotic Challenge!

Fifth grade used only the parts in their NXT Mindstorms kit to construct a chair for a beanie baby.  The chair had to survive an ankle-length drop and not fall apart.  It had to fit the beanie comfortably, and be an inch off the ground.  Specialized parts were also added such as cup holders, arm rests, massage devices, even automatic saws in order to cut wood without the beanie getting out of his/her chair.  We used iMovie Trailer to record our engineering ideas.  See below!  Awesome use of the engineering design process mixed with creativity!  Good job fifth grade!

Lamby's Chair by Marin and Riley

The Battle of Jolly by Walker and Mason

Mackenzie and Katie

Brian and Kai

Kaden and Colin



Noah and Ty


Timothy and Mitchell

Caleb and Cooper




Madison and Mallory

Heard from a Little Birdie...3rd Grade Is Studying Ornithology!

Ornithology is the study of birds, and boy, do we have some bird watchers in 3rd grade!  We learned the characteristics that make a bird a bird and noticed that the shape of birds' eggs had more to do with the type of nest they created than other factors.  We looked at feathers of all kinds and researched the parts and looked inside the "hollow" bones birds have.  Our studies led us to look at bird beaks and think about why some birds have certain beaks. Here are pictures of us during the Bird Beak Lab, gathering facts and graphing results about bird beaks!!

Mammal-Mania!! 1st & 2nd

First and second graders have been studying mammalogy, mammals of all kinds: monotreme, marsupial, and placental.  After we looked at these cool groups of mammals, specifically the duck-billed platypus and the wombat, we chose our own mammal to research and find out more.  Our students were on a fact-finding mission, and I'm so impressed by what they found to interest their audience!  See our products below. Some of the audio is hard to hear and we will definitely work on that!

Elise B.

Hayden C.

Maegan C.

Kennedy E.

Michael H.

Alejandro

Adam M.

Gunnar M.

Liliana K.

Landry H.

Mammal-Mania!!

Third grade is summarizing the study of mammals, or mammology, by researching a single mammal of their choice from the 3 groups of mammals:  Monotreme, Marsupial, and Placental.  We collected our mammal  research on an app called iFunFace.  Our research involved specific details to our mammal, patterns of adjusting to habitat, adaptations developed for survival, and in some cases ethical issues surrounding extinction and endangerment.

Mia H.

Conner K.

Dylan M.

Abby B.

Gabriel A.

Griffin V.

Dylyn W.

Kyle D.

Welcome Back! Thinking outside of the pond! Gr. 4-5

Marin S.

Grades 4-5 began the year with a social-emotional unit that had them reflecting on what it might mean to be a participant in the GT pullout class and in life.  How do we treat others and ourselves when differences are very apparent?  What is our own style of learning and how does that affect group members with whom we are working?  Click on link below to read more and see other student's projects!!

Welcome Back! Thinking outside of the duck pond! Gr 1-3

Our GT pullout classes started off this year with a two-week social emotional unit in which we looked at our differences and others'.  After reading Eggbert in grades 1-3, we decided it was ok to be different like Eggbert the main character, and we documented a time when we felt "cracked" as he did.  One of the Big Ideas of this book is that we should be "true to ourselves" even if we fall into a Pattern of trying to do what others do.  In the end, we need to find our own solutions, and many of us explained how we fixed the time when we felt "cracked".

Rachel Carson and Grades 1-3

We've been looking at Rachel Carson's contribution to our world, researching about her life and work.  Student's chose to either complete a power point or prezi presentation to learn about her and offer us some ideas about everyday things we can do to save the Earth!  See our presentations now:

Kellen and Skylar's Power Point presentation

Grades 1-3 Walt Disney!

Walt Disney

Grades 1-3 continue their study on the successful characteristics of powerful people. We knew Walt Disney must have been a fun guy since he created Disneyland and all, but there were many other aspects of his personality and life we didn't know.  Some vocabulary words we studied in this unit were:  sychronized, optimist, urban legend (the legend that Disney froze his body--not true!), and convergence.  We looked at

Grade 1-3: Frederic Remington

Grades 1-3 are studying Frederic Remington, cowboy artist.  Remington grew up in New York City but idolized the wild west and actually went to live as a cowboy.  That life was not for him, but Remington produced true-to-the-west paintings and bronze sculptures   Our classes studied Remington's artistic style and tried it out first hand creating our own bronzed sculptures.

Click below to see more student sculptures

Dr. Ben Carson and the Brain! Grades 1-3

This month grades 1-3 also studied Dr. Ben Carson, a gifted neurosurgeon.  We watched a short clip about Dr. Carson's life called, Gifted Hands: The Story of Ben Carson.  Learning that the young Ben Carson started out in school getting Ds and Fs on his report card, was an eye opener for us!  He overcame his obstacles in life with the help of his mother, who pushed him to do his best.  He went on to graduate top in his high school class and received a college scholarship to Yale, later becoming a cutting-edge brain surgeon.

We learned many parts of the brain and what each part is responsible for and put it all together to construct a brain hat.  Here are some of us wearing our smarts now!

3rd Grade: Wonder for Wilma!

We all wondered how Wilma Rudolph overcame the hardships in her life!  As a child, Wilma seemed to catch every disease and got the measles, mumps, and chicken pox.  (Not many of us even knew what those diseases were!  We had a great discussion on vaccinations.)  When Wilma found out she had scarlet fever and polio at the same time, she had to fight for her life with the only tools she had: doing her exercises.  Our class talked about how powerful people have a strong, positive will that takes over everything they do.  Wilma, recovered from being crippled to win 3 gold medals in the 1960 Olympics.  We decided that all of us have that same strength in us that Wilma had; we can choose to use it or not.  Following, are some gold medals we awarded ourselves or others and why:

My cousin, who made it through pneumonia--Blake

5th Grade Robots on the Run!

Fifth grade has been super busy learning about basic robotics programming.  Students are learning to send their robot forward and back, the best way to make a sharp 90 degree turn, do donuts (making fast circles), talk to us, and many other moves!  Now we've begun turning on our sensors and figuring out how to tell our robot what to do when a sensor is triggered. For example, when the touch sensor hits a wall should our robot back up, turn away, or say "Ouch"!  I'm very proud of our 5th graders; there is a lot of troubleshooting that must be done as well.  When their robots don't do what they are supposed to, our kids figure out why.  Great problem solving skills to be gained-and fun!!  See some more pictures following:

Dr. Debakey and Heart Dissection! Grades 1-3!

Grades 1-3 studied Dr. Michael Debakey's life as a heart surgeon.  During this past Valentine's week, our GT students were able to get a close look at a pig's heart, which can be more similar to an adult human's heart.  We located some important parts on our heart:  aorta, vena cava, atrium, ventricle, valves, and tendons.  Your students were super excited to find these actual parts of the heart!  See the pix following!

Mrs. Pina's GT Class

Special thanks to Jamie, our camera person and teacher's assistant!

Click for the rest of our pictures

Frost Rocks! Puppet Show Video! Grades 1-3

Grades 1-3 created  videos starring their very own puppets.  There were all kinds of ideas and scenes: in the science lab, at lunch, in the gym, reading, doing math and many other Frost activities.  We used some of our ideas and videos to enter a contest entitled:  Texas Public Schools Rock!  After quite a bit of editing (Video could only be 2 minutes long!) this was our final product.  I wish I could have put more puppets in the actual entry; everyone contributed their great ideas about how Frost Rocks!

3rd Grade: Ms. Pina Class and Jacques Cousteau

3rd Grade is studying Jacque Cousteau and how he brought the undersea world into the homes of many people who had never seen the fantastic creatures who lived there!  We studied the marine animals and learned to say their names in French.  Google translator helped us learn a few more marine names like shell (coquille-which kind of sounds like cookie!) and shrimp (crevette).  We researched some of the most interesting undersea life on an app called Educreations.  Here are some of our Presentations:

3rd Grade and Jacque Cousteau!

3rd Grade is studying Jacque Cousteau and how he brought the undersea world into the homes of many people who had never seen the fantastic creatures who lived there!  We studied the marine animals and learned to say their names in French.  Google translator helped us learn a few more marine names like shell (coquille-which kind of sounds like cookie!) and shrimp (crevette).  We researched some of the most interesting undersea life on an app called Skitch.  Here are some of our Skitches.

1st Grade and Jacque Cousteau

1st Grade has been super busy learning about Jacque Cousteau and his life of undersea adventure.  We couldn't learn about Cousteau's life and ignore all the marine animals brought to life by his underwater cameras.  We studied marine animals and learned how to say their names in French like Cousteau!  Please excuse our accents.  We are just beginners!

4th Grade Straw Rockets & Space Shuttle Challenge Pix

 4th Grade continues flight tests with their straw rockets.  Recently we learned about velocity (how long {range}a flight is and how much time it takes to make the flight) and which launch angle produced the greatest velocity.  We tested 6 different launch angles:  15, 30, 45, 60,75, and 90 degrees.  We found 15%