5th Grade Robotics

Since building their robots 5th grade has been busy programming them to perform challenges using specific sensors.  We've spent the last few weeks working with both touch sensors, sound, ultrasonic and light sensors.  Our robots have had to detect distance, objects, and black lines in order to continue to the next move in the program.  Our culminating activity with all these sensors was to put our robots through the paces by performing 20 challenges of varying degrees of difficulty.  Next up, we will be working with a new partner on a special project.

4th Grade and Genius Hour

Fourth grade has launched into a new unit called Genius Hour.  In this unit, we explore a topic of our choice to plan, pitch, and present.  We are spending some time learning about what really makes us think-what we are passionate about!  In order to find a topic that has meaning for us, we are learning more about what we are interested in so that we can focus on a realistic choice.  We are using a program called Thrively to help us narrow down our search.  Thrively also gives us opportunities to learn which careers we may be the most interested in and activities that we can do online that may spark our interest in something.  Once we've browsed Thrively, we will use a March-madness type bracket activity to narrow down topics even more.  Mrs. Imrie will conference with students, asking focusing questions as well.  We look forward to finding our topics and making a difference through Genius Hour!

The Talented Jim Henson

First through third grade studied the very innovative and creative Jim Henson.  Jim Henson was born before TV was invented and common in households, so he and his family were entertained by playing outside, going to plays, listening to the radio and many others.  Even though Henson built a crystal radio with his brother, he was fascinated when TV finally did come out and he couldn't wait to be on it!  His first chance was working with puppets and marionettes, and eventually muppets.  He created his muppets to be more human-like and emotional so that people would actually like watching them on TV.  We learned all the many ways we could make a puppet at home and finally created our own puppet show on an app called Puppet Pals.  First grade acted out a joke and second and third drew a scenario out of a basket and created a play, then performed the play on the app Puppet Pals.  After we completed our plays, we were able to watch each others on the big screen in our classroom!

First Grade Puppet Pal Example

Kinder 2016

Kindergarten has gotten off to a great start this year.  So glad these younger scholars have joined our GT pullout class!  We started class off by reading the book and discussing the title:  I'm Gonna Like Me .  Each one of us made a page for the book showing us liking ourselves even when we made a mistake or had to try a new food like broccoli!  Then we learned more about each other by creating our own Star glyph.  We tested our thinking as we answered questions about our friends based on the way they "coded" their star!

This past week we worked with a different kind of thinking called logical thinking and how you use clues to help you find the answers.  We started out together solving a problem about students and their favorite dinosaurs, but were only given 3 clues to help us match the person to the dino.  We learned that if we took notes on a table it would keep us organized and we could find the solutions. We participated in two logic stations after that in which we had to "level up":  fuzzy logic on the iPad and Zoologic, an activity we worked on together with Mrs. Imrie.

5th Robotics Challenges

Fifth grade is really moving when it comes to robotics!  We have started using the computer software to program and code our Mindstorms to incorporate the sensors and movements together.  After learning about the most basic and useful programming block in the common palette, we took our robots through a series of challenges.  As we were successful with each challenge, we moved onto the next.  The first challenge moved our robot 3 feet forward, right turn, move ahead then come to a complete stop.  Once we were exactly 3 feet forward, we moved to the next level and had to get our robot to make a sharp-right turn.  That increased our awareness of another choice:  movement by degrees.  After each challenge we discussed what was happening with our robot and how a slight change in the program would affect it.  Toward the end of class, we applied all that we had learned to create some of our own programs.  Fun learning day in robotics!

Grades 1-3: Dr. DeBakey and Heart Dissection

Grades first through third have been learning about the fascinating life of Dr. Michael DeBakey, local pioneer heart surgeon. Dr. DeBakey's early ideas of doing open heart surgery were looked at skeptically by some of his colleagues in the field, but he felt it was doable and necessary.  We talked about a few of his early patients known as "blue" babies, who were born with a defect to the blood vessel connecting the heart to the lungs. With his heart-lung machine invention he was able to save so many lives and his surgeries  became world-renown. Dr. DeBakey continued to work long into his life; he was close to 100 when he died!  Our class learned some valuable lessons:  Be confident in your own ideas for innovation and just because it's never been done, doesn't mean that it can't be done!

Finally we were excited to learn about the human heart by dissecting a real pig heart. We were able to see how the parts of the heart, like the right and left atria and ventricles and various blood vessels, work together to circulate blood through our bodies. It's an amazing organ!

First grade was also part of the heart dissection and as I was working with them closely, I'm sorry I did not get any pictures!  They were amazing scientists-I do have pictures of their heart models and blood flow path below!

                                                                        3rd

2nd

1st

Max

Vanni

Ryan

Jack

5th Grade: Using Sensors 2-22-16

Today in robotics we added some of our sensors to our Lego Mindstorm and tested them to see if they were working properly.  We will use all of our sensors in unison to master future challenges!

Sound Sensor

Ultrasonic Sensor

Grades 1-3 Continues with Bill Gates and Coding

We have been studying powerful person Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft this week by looking deeper into computer science and coding.  Our class divided into groups and rotated through a number of STEM related activities that would help us learn more about how to code and its importance.  Our rotations this week included:  1.  Lego Story Visualizer (students created a Valentine's story with a beginning, middle, and end) using a lego digital storytelling app.  2.  Coding games and creating objects with Code Studio on the iPads   3.  Teacher Table:  Ozobot robot coding lesson  and  4.  iPad investigations.

5th Robotics 2-9-16

5th grade was busy, busy building out their robot prototype and testing it as they built it.  Quite a few students were able to start basic programming on the brick (brain) of their lego nxt!  Next time we will learn about the functions of the computer software and complete more complex programming on the computer and send our programs to our robot via USB cable.

4th Grade: Little Bits Exploration

We explored Little bits circuits this past week as part of a mini-unit called Code Stars.  These circuits are great ways to teach about input and output.  Learning the ins and out of Little Bits is just the beginning.  Students learned the basic circuitry and tried completing the basic challenges like making a light turn on and off with a switch.  Then students were encouraged to try their own  creations and designs.  Students created flashlights, practical joke hand buzzers, and fans that turned on using a pressure sensor.  There was much discussion about how circuits are used in everyday items such as computers, coffee pots, cell phone, etc!

In addition to Little Bits circuits, we explored the uses of a robot called Ozobot!  This little robot uses visual coding instead of the computer language we have been learning about like that on Code.org.  Ozobot has 5 color sensors located on the bottom along with two little wheels.  When coding Ozobot we must use lines and color codes of 3-4 colors.  We were able to observe Ozobot speed up, slow down, turn at different rotations and other commands as Ozobot traveled across different color codes.  We learned that to program Ozobot, we need to learn its color-code language.