Monthly Archives: April 2017

Me On the Map

First graders were reading about maps, so in STEAM they planned and designed a map of an imaginary community. First, we brainstormed places in a town and made a concept map.  Next, students made a map on the Interactive Whiteboard.  Then, they made a model of their town. Each group made a different building for our town.  A big thank you goes out to Colteryahn Dairy who donated empty cartons for the buildings. Students programmed the BeeBots to go from one place in the town to another. They also learned about circuits and made “Squishy Circuits” with play dough, a battery pack and a light bulb. They put their “Squishy Circuits” in the buildings to light them up!  See our learning in action in this video:

Constructing Native American Dwellings

In 5th Grade students were learning about different Native American cultures, so in STEAM they researched different dwellings used by Native Americans.  They watched videos to learn how the Native Americans constructed each dwelling.  They followed the Engineering & Design process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve) to design and build a model of a Native American Dwelling.  Check out their final products below:

Spaghetti Skyscraper Earthquake Challenge

In 6th Grade students were reading about natural disasters, so in STEAM they were challenged to create a model of a skyscraper that could withstand a 10 second earthquake simulation.  Their structure also had to securely hold an egg.  They used marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti and masking tape.  (They could not tape their egg to their structure).  They had to “purchase” their materials and had to stay within their budget of $4,875.  Spaghetti was $100 per noodle, marshmallows were $50 a piece and masking tape was $25 per inch.  Students had to write checks and complete purchase orders.  They also had to decide whether or not they wanted to purchase insurance prior to construction in case of catastrophic loss.  This unit incorporated the 4 C’s of 21st Century learning, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity.  Students also had to be resilient and adopt a Growth Mindset when faced with challenges and set backs.   See how they did in the video below:

Meet Milo

Students in 6th and 5th Grade at Economy  have been busy building and programming Milo, a robot that can be built with the Lego WeDo 2.0 Robotics Kit.  First, they built and coded Milo to move forward.  Students worked in groups of 3 and each person had a specialized job, to keep things running smoothly.  One person was the “Picker” or the person who found the correct Legos in the kit.  Another person took on the role of “Builder”. The “Picker” handed the blocks to the “Builder” who assembled the blocks.  Then the “Coder” programmed the robot on the iPad.

Next, students added a motion sensor and programmed the robot to stop at a flower and play tune.  Then, they added a tilt sensor to their Milo and programmed the light on their robot to change color when the tilt sensor is moved back and forth.  Last, was the Collaboration Challenge, where students had to get 2 Milos to work together to pull a load. Check out this video summary of our work below.  We hope that the 4th Graders, as well as the students at State Street will be using these robotics kits before the end of the school year! Be sure to check out your student’s See Saw portfolio for photos and videos of their Milo in action!

Algorithms for Algorithms

When students create a computer program they are creating an algorithm or listing the steps needed for something to happen.  Students also use algorithms in mathematics; in this case the algorithms would be the steps taken to divide fractions or multiply decimals.  Students were challenged to create a program in Scratch that reteaches a math concept. By elaborating on their understanding of the math by teaching the concept to others, this will help them store this skill in their long term memory!

Here are their final products:

Mr. Beighley’s Class

Mrs. Brock’s Class

Mrs. Hartle’s Class

Mrs. Keczmer’s Class

Mrs. Ramer’s Class

Mrs. Rupik’s Class

Multiplication the Fun Way

Students in 4th Grade read stories from the book Times Tables the Fun Way that provides tales and visuals to help students remember their multiplication facts.  For example, for 6 x 6 their are the two 6s that are wandering through the desert an and they are “thirsty sixes”.  Thirsty six sounds like 36, so students will remember more easily that 6 x6 = 36.  They recreated these stories by creating a program in Scratch, a free programming software from MIT.  Here are links to their work:

Mrs. Malatesta’s Class

Mrs. Ray’s Class

Mrs. Rusnak’s Class

Mrs. Shumsky’s Class

Exploring Potential and Kinetic Energy with Hotwheels

4th Graders explored Potential and Kinetic Energy through the Hotwheels Speedometry curriculum.  First, they explored making ramps.  They started with a ramp that was one book high, and measured how far their car went. Then, they added 2, 3, and 4 books.  They ran 3 trials each time and found the mean and created a bar graph of their results. Next, the explored using clamps to attach their ramp to a shelf to make their hill higher and subsequently increase the potential energy of their car.  Students also explored different variables like the aerodynamics of the different models of cars and friction of surfaces.  Here is a video summary of their work:

Exploring Electric Circuits with Little Bits

Students in 3rd grade were the first to get their hands on the Little Bits Kits!  These kits contain electronic build blocks that snap together with magnets.  The bits are color coded: blue bits are power bits, pink bits are input bits and green bits are output bits.  We tied in the reading skill “Cause and Effect” to help us understand input and output.  We learned that the input tells the output what to do, so it always has to come first otherwise our circuit won’t work.  We say the input is the “cause” and the output is the “effect”.  After completing a series of challenges, the students followed the Engineering & Design process to create a prototype of an invention that would solve a problem at school.  Currently, our 4th graders are exploring the Little Bits, and we are hoping to use them with 5th and 6th graders also.  Here is a video of our 3rd grade projects:

Creating Art that Moves

3rd Graders learned about the Kinetic Artist, Rube Goldberg in STEAM.  A Kinetic Artist makes art that moves.  During this unit students learned about simple machines and were challenged to create 3 simple machines out of recyclable materials.  The goal was to get these simple machines to work together to make a more complex machine.  A Rube Goldberg machine performs a simple task in a complex manner.  For example, students created a device that turned off the lights or turned on a computer.  The students were supposed to create chain reactions and we tied in our reading skill of “Cause and Effect” into our projects.  We followed the Engineering & Design Process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create and Improve)  and documented our progress in our notebooks. Here is a video summary of our Rube Goldberg unit: