Grade 4: Rocket Racers!

Fourth grade finished up the rocket racer aerodynamics unit today by testing our racers out!  We did three trial runs to see how far the design we engineered would take us.  After each trial we recorded distance covered, how our racer behaved, and what we thought we could do to make the design go farther and what was causing it's behavior!  Many of us were successful at troubleshooting our problems and getting more distance after correction.  We reviewed and observed the properties of air and had a great discussion on distance efficiency: small wheels vs. large wheels, small wheels in back vs. in the front, mass of the cart, tape and balloon when blown up, causes of smooth axle turning, etc.  Check out a short video and some examples of movement and see pictures of all rocket racers below:

Rocket Racer Video

5th Grade is Awesome with Robots!

Fifth grade has been building a special robotic project for the last couple of weeks.  Today we put the finishing touches on our programs and tried them out.  Many of us took our new NXT to specials class to show others how it works.  Check out our videos following:

Luisa's Wind Up Ballerina

Reghan's Batting Machine and Pitcher

Johnny and Michael's Power Saw

Aiden and Ashlyn H's Dog Sled

Rylee and Shealyn's Flipping Gymnast

Evan and Max

Sam and Tyler

Parveen and Ellen

Zane and Emily

5th Grade Leprechaun Trap-Engineering Challenge!

How do you trap a wily, gold-loving, magical being using only common household items?  Fifth grade put their head's together to create a Leprechaun trap that would trap a 12 inch leprechaun without hurting him/her and included camouflage, using only common household items all with-in a time limit.  We used a rubric and graded each other's presentations while creating a book for each team with "thumbs up" comments and practical suggestions.

Grade 3: Leprechaun Traps!

In honor of Engineering week and the arrival of spring-yay!  Third grade had the chance to design a trap for a leprechaun given just a few household items like straws, rubber bands, paper and tape to name a few.  At the end of the challenge, their design had to be able to hold and trick a 12 inch or shorter leprechaun without harming him/her, include items to entice a leprechaun and/or camouflage, and show teamwork in the design process.  We presented our final traps to each other and created a small book for each team including our positive "thumbs up" comments and suggestions or advice.  Our traps were very creative; some included ladders, drop pits, fake gold, pulleys, etc.  Here's a video of us during the building process: