Easter Weekend Challenge

Can't have Easter without eggs, and that, of course, means we need to do the Egg Drop Challenge. 









Problem: Build a contraption that will protect an egg when it is dropped from a height.
You can decide with your grown up whether your egg is hard boiled or not. 

Brainstorm: What materials would be helpful? What shape should you try to create? 

Plan: Draw your design and list your materials.  Don't forget to plan how it will be held together!

Build it




Test:  YOU NEED A PARENT OR GROWN-UP TO DO THIS WITH YOU
Don't try to test indoors - way too much mess!!  Have an adult help you drop your egg (in its contraption) from a height greater than six feet (step ladder, top of a slide, deck, whatever).  After it drops, open the contraption to see if it cracked.  If not, congratulations!

Send me pictures of your contraptions or videos of your tests!

Happy Easter!

Drip Drop Challenge

This activity comes from Carson Dellosa Education, STEM Challenges box

How many drops of water can you fit on a penny? 












A quarter? 



Is there a way to fit more?


You need to add one drop at a time, either by using a dropper or by dripping them off the tip of your finger.  Add each one slowly.


Extension: What happens if you add dish soap to the water and repeat the activity?  If you cover the coin in sunscreen first? 

Key concepts: 
Surface tension: the molecules stick together and hold their shape.  You can see this when you look at raindrops on leaves or flower petals, for example.  Mixing other liquids into the water changes the surface tension.

Coding Instruction from Home

Coding is the common term for Programming, or writing the programs that run apps, websites, etc.  All of this falls under the general title of Computer Science.  When I was growing up, you took computer science classes if you planned to go into a computer science field, which I didn't.  So it was an uncomfortable thing for me to start learning coding, and then building it into my classes.  I started teaching coding about 6 years ago, and now it is an enormous part of what we do, from kindergarten on up.  The kids will tell you that it's my favorite thing to teach.  Part of the reason for that is because the reactions from them when they figure out how to program something.  It is very empowering and exciting for them!

While we're all virtual learning for the next few (weeks? months?) coding is a great way to keep their little brains growing while they are having fun doing it!  The availability of coding resources online has grown incredibly over the last few years.  Now there are free resources (both online and offline) everywhere!  I wanted to share some of my favorites so that you can hopefully share them with your children as well.

Code.org was considered the first kid-accessible site for learning to code with no prior experience.  Over the past half a decade or so, they've expanded the offerings on their site to include extensive courses as well as shorter overviews, courses for non-readers, engaging games and activities, as well as more advanced text-based coding lessons.  If your child has a Google account, they can track their progress and save their projects along the way.

My favorite platform for beginning and intermediate coding lessons is Scratch .  All of my 3rd and 4th graders learn how to code in Scratch, while my k-2 students start out on the iPads on Scratch Jr. It is user friendly and adaptable to kids of all coding levels.  You do need to have an account in Scratch, so I have my students set them up using their regular school username and password, for continuity.

Typing.com (our keyboarding program) and Khan Academy (a home-learning favorite) have both developed coding curriculum along side their original curriculum.  If your child is looking for something new or different than what we do in school, this is possibly the way to go. 

Good luck and have fun!

Spring Break STEM Challenge

Next week is Spring Vacation, although for most of us, there will be no vacations taking place this year! And the snow falling outside today definitely makes it feel like winter still!  Now that you've had a couple days to get used to learning at home, I have a STEM design challenge for you!

Start with this video about engineers

Remember, engineers design things to solve problems.  So think about one of the problems or challenges you've noticed now that we're all learning from home.  Can you design something to solve that problem? 

Start by brainstorming:

• something to organize your supplies
• something to keep you comfortable while working at a table
• a privacy blocker to separate you and your siblings
• a system to deliver messages to your parents while you're working
• an iPad stand
• be creative! 

If you have the materials to create it at home, go for it!  If not, draw a diagram of your plan and label what materials you would use.  

Don't forget to send me a picture or a video!

STEM in the age of Virtual Learning - Build a Leprechaun Trap

In the last week, everything we've known and become comfortable with about teaching has been upended.  Due to the growing concern about the COVID-19 Virus and the speed at which it's spreading, most teachers and students are working from home for the foreseeable future.  This seems like as good a time as any to revive this blog and share projects and activities with the families.

Today, since it's St. Patrick's Day, your challenge is to build a leprechaun trap!

This is a fun read-aloud to start out with

The story is that if you can catch the leprechaun, you get his gold. You need to use something gold and shiny as bait to lure him in to the trap. But your trap has to be creative and quick!  Think about what materials you can use.  Here are some suggestions:

• shoe box
• tissue box
• straws
• string
• cloth
• cotton balls
• sticks
• bowls
• tin foil

Build your trap to see if you can catch a leprechaun.  Be sure to send me a picture!

Hope you're having fun with your family at home this week!

Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code is an organization that was founded by Reshma Saujani to address the gender gap in computer science, and to provide computer science opportunities to all girls, regardless of their location and their background.  As part of our STEAM and Storytelling grant through the Oconomowoc Public Education Foundation, we had an official Girls Who Code coding club this fall.  In order for the club to be considered an official club, the leader gets certified online, and the club uses the materials and book provided.

The girls in the club are LOVING it!  We meet once a week and read parts of the book, then complete coding challenge activities using Scratch.  They each have a copy of the book, which many have said they have been reading with their moms at home.  What a powerful message this sends them, that there are clubs and books encouraging them to learn to code.  I hope we will be able to have a follow up club next year and grow the number of participants even more.  

  

NEW - - Science in the Makerspace

There were several reasons for the changes to our curriculum and structure this year.  One of those reasons was to increase the focus on engineering in the elementary schools.  Subsequently, we adopted a new science curriculum at the k-5 level.  One of the three units at each grade level is a physical science unit.  Each has a final project that is "makerspacey" in nature - heavy on the design process, very open ended, and applying science concepts to a building task.  We are teaching the physical science unit in the Library/STEM classes this year.  We started the year with those units at 3rd grade and 4th grade - Forces and Interactions, and Energy Works, respectively.  It's been a big change for us and for them, but everyone has enjoyed it so far! 

This week we begin the Push, Pull and Go unit in kindergarten, and the Light and Sound unit in first grade.  This will lead to the kindergarten and first grade students spending considerably more time in the makerspace this year than in previous years.  Over the next few years, it will be very interesting to see how this impacts their work on design projects as they get older.  We've seen a change in our current third and fourth graders, now that we've had the makerspace for 4 years, particularly in the amount of creativity and independent thinking they're showing. 

We continue to be so fortunate to have a community willing to support "out of the box" ideas like tearing out a computer lab and building a makerspace.  Our students are showing the benefits of this every year!