What Is Engineering?

In preparation for our robotics unit, 5th grade is researching some different engineering fields.  We were all surprised to learn that there are about 200 different types of engineering and that number is growing.  The first activity we completed was the engineering sort.  We looked at examples and non-examples of engineering and placed them on a chart accordingly.  After that, we picked a type of engineering and began researching about it.  Many of us had written questions we still had earlier in the lesson and began looking for answers about college courses required in the field, beginning salary, job duties, and more.  We will share our research with everyone on our choice of learning platform:  iMovie, power point, kahoot or powtoons just to name a few.

4th Grade Engineering

Help Desk

Fourth grade began a new unit this week in engineering.  To begin, watched a NASA video on the engineering design process, then looked at engineered items.  When we watched the video called, Help Desk, we realized immediately that engineers solve problems to make life better for people. We learned that they ask questions about the problem and what others have tried, they imagine possibilities/solutions, plan out how they will solve the problem, create their design, then test and re-test for improvement and effectiveness.  Using these same design principles and common materials, we are going to create our own engineered items that we feel people would like to use.

Some of us wanted to do some extra projects at home, so we looked at a website that could help give us ideas called diy.org.  The cool factor on this website is that it offers badges (either digital or real) if we do the required challenges listed.  For example, if we want to be a Cardboarder and earn that badge, we have to complete 3 of the challenges listed.  We thought we would give it a try and see how many we could collect-with our parents' permission of course!  Click below for website:

Powerful People Unit

We have started a new unit in GT called Powerful People.  The Big Idea of this Unit:

Studying a diverse group of leaders who've changed the world for the better and allows students to conclude that their traits and characteristics cross all lines of color, class, and culture, thereby motivating their own personal aspirations.  We talked about people we thought were powerful people and why.  At the end we concluded that powerful people share several traits and we learned some new words in the process.  As we study these individuals and try our hand at some of the activities they were involved in, we will begin to categorize our powerful people into groups: creators, ecologist, advocate, medical/pioneer, athletes, kids/teen, etc.

1st Grade and Powerful People

First grade is starting a new unit called Powerful People which is the study of successful people and the character traits that make them successful.  In addition to learning about their character we also study some of the areas of that person's expertise.  For example, we will learn why Milton Hershey was a powerful person, and we will also think like a scholar about:  CHOCOLATE, yes! (Coming soon)  In our introduction to this unit, we look at ourselves as powerful people.  To help us understand this, we watched a short clip about JJ Watt helping a young boy who was being bullied at school.  Most of us thought JJ Watt was powerful because of his muscles, but we learned his real power is helping people!  We created small lego sculptures to remind us about each trait and a self portrait that includes a frame of our own special traits.  We will add extra individuality to this project with help from an iPad app called word cloud, and will post pictures of that digital project later.

First Weeks of GT

For the last couple of weeks in GT pullout we have been warming up our brain with some challenging logic/math problems, finishing an engineering challenge, and starting our grade level units.  Below are some pictures of us working on the "Flag Pole Fiasco", an engineering challenge with which all grade levels started the year.  Groups were allocated the same amount of everyday household items, eg. 10 craft sticks, 10 rubber bands and so on, in order to build a better flag and flagpole that could stand by itself!  Groups earned additional points for each inch of height on the flagpole; the most points earned was in the "cooperating with our group" category.  My favorite ideas were using paper clips as connector pieces on the straws, support systems using a counter-weight, and using flexible parts of straws as support beams!  Some of our students at work below:

Welcome back, Flyers!

Image from TechnologyRocksSeriously

What a great couple of weeks in GT pullout!  Our first day started with a test in all grade levels.  I heard several students ask, "Is it a math test?  Reading?"  I know I heard several groans; students just couldn't believe I was testing them.  Our test was actually a quiz about...Mrs. Imrie, and students selected their answers on the iPad using an app called Kahoot.  Afterward we rated the app in different categories: is it useful for learning?  Is it engaging?  Flyers gave this app high ratings!  We reviewed the icons of depth and complexity through an All About Me pennant activity, and got an information sheet ready for our parents' "homework" that night.

To warm up for this week each of our classes worked on a differentiated logic problem.  We discussed strategies that would help us figure out the problem like using a grid, picture, notes or 3D objects, then set to work.  Next we brainstormed ideas to fix the engineering challenge "The Flag Pole Fiasco"!  Groups were allocated the same amount of everyday household items, eg. 10 craft sticks, 10 rubber bands and so on, in order to build a better flag and flagpole.  Groups earned additional points for each inch of height on the flagpole; the most points earned is in the "cooperating with our group" category.  We will share our final products next week.

More logic problems?  Click here


And finally, just want to give out a BIG thank you to the huge response for our request for supplies in our GT classroom!!

Kinder: Originality!

Kinder has been learning about thinking:  Fluency, Flexibility, Logic, Compare/Contrast and now Originality.  We read the book The Bag I'm Taking to Grandma's and discussed how the book related to us.  A few of us had spent the night at Grandma's and told about the things they had to take with them.  In the book, our main character has so many things he wants to take that the bag starts to break!  We talked about "essentials" and how our character was missing those, then we created our own special bags to take to grandma's using an app called Pic Collage.  We laughed when our original thinking had us taking a Pizza Hut store or a MLB player to grandma's!  See our bags below: