Squid Dissection! 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grade

Our study of malacology continued today with a squid dissection.  Once some of us got over the texture and smell, dissecting the squid was an awesome learning process.  We learned the difference between the ventral and dorsal view.  After we found the siphon, a tube that helps the squid swim, we cut and opened the mantle revealing, gills, stomach, 3 hearts, ink sack and more.  Very carefully, we pulled out the pen or backbone of the squid, pierced the ink sack and wrote our names!  Finally, we located the outer and inner beak of the squid to get a first hand look at how a squid holds and eats its prey.

5th Grade special projects: Week 2

Fifth grade continues to work on their Mindstorm Nxt special project.  We have been troubleshooting the programs when they do not intitially work.  There is a lot of thinking and field testing going on in our class, trying to get our robots to do what they are supposed to do!  Below are the videos of the different projects finished this week:

5th Grade Robotics: Special Projects

This week fifth grade was able to choose and begin building a special robotics project.  Some of us have chosen to recreate an animal, such as a scorpian, cobra, or turtle (Mason M. did a great job of troubleshooting this!).  Others of us, have decided to make a machine like a lockbox or create Santa's sleigh!  Our challenges have taken our building to a new level as we scour our resource kits for extra parts.  See activities below.

Noah's Etch-a-Sketch

1st and 2nd Grade: Speleology

Our interest in caves, caverns, sinkholes and being underground is catching!  Our class began research on several different types of caves using our icons of depth and complexity to guide us.

Patterns: What is the pattern of formation for this cave?
Language of the Discipline: What are terms a caver would use?
Ethics: What are some ethical issues surrounding caves right now?
Unanswered Questions: What are some of your unanswered questions about caves?

Next week we will finish our powerpoints and present them here and begin a hands-on activity with cave-making.

5th Grade: Robo Olympics

 

 

There was a lot of cardboard cutting and duck-taping this week in 5th grade getting ready for the Robo Olympics.  Some of us were making ramps and other structures to use in our floor routines:  30 seconds of our best robotic moves!  Several of us were preparing our robots in golf and bowling.  Many of us were re-programming our bricks in hopes that our robot would do as we wanted it to do.  Next week we will be practicing and recording our routines in hopes of gold, silver, or bronze.

LEAF Grant Award for GT program

I asked my students what they could do with $650.00 worth of lego pieces.  Let me just say they had a lot of creative ideas!  Some were so excited they wanted to get the legos out and start creating!  Our Frost and Adolphus GT program has been awarded a LEAF grant this year called the Brick Lab.  It's a huge plastic tub filled with legos of varying sizes.  The best part?  We can learn communication, engineering, math, language arts, and science through legos--very exciting opportunity for our students!