First graders went to the STEAMworks lab on Halloween and made straw shooters to learn about force and flying. First they created a tiny paper straw like piece and put it on the end of a straw and blew. Nothing happened because the air went right through the creation. They learned you had to put an end to the piece of paper in order to have something to put force against (the push of their breath is the force). They learned about blowing softer and harder and how that affected the distance it flew, how you can't tape the object to the straw or it won't fly. How adding more paper to the shooter or adding excessive tape affects the distance. Good time had by all!
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For 3 weeks the 1st graders have been going to the code.org website and learning about programming. They are learning the concept of sequencing as they "program" an angry bird to land on a pig. Week 4 we headed to the STEAMworks lab to program BeeBots. The bots have forward, backward, left & right on the bee's back. We created mats for them to roll around on. The students program the bots to go from one letter to another by inputing a sequence of directional commands. The younger students (PreK-1st) pretty much have to hold the bee and carry it along the path in order to experience it from the bee's perspective. As they get better at their lefts and rights and hopefully after doing this many times they might be able to stand on the side of the mat, not follow the path themselves, and visualize which way the bot has to turn - the bots' left and right, not theirs! Then as a 3-5th grader look at a grid on a piece of paper visualize the bee's path, write down a series of directional commands, then go to the bot, program it and test it. ANYWAY, the kids just love making the bots do what they want them to do! Check out the video below. The week of October 26th the 5th graders headed to the STEAMworks lab to experience mechanical energy. Their challenge was to make a Hotwheels track that would sustain the longest amount of time a car was moving on it. The Kindergarten classes went into the STEAMworks lab the week of October 18th to work on shapes. They used K'nex to form the shapes they are studying. They talked about how many sides and if they were equal lengthed and how to convert one shape to another. Then they worked in pairs to see how many shapes they could make and connect into one creation.
(Actual Date of Post - September 29, 2016) Last week we opened our new STEAMWorks Lab! We had every class come during their computer lab time. Here's what we did: Prek/Kinder - got the legos out and they were challenged to build something that had to do with the Gingerbread Man story. We had many spaceships for the gingerbread man to escape in, a dinosaur to help him escape, an airplane with a trap that would lower down and catch the gingerbread man, a zipline for the gingerbread man, and a snowplow for the little old man and the little old lady to help catch him in the snow! 1st grade - first graders used wood planks to build things in teams. Then in bigger teams they were challenged to build the tallest tower they could in 5 minutes that could support a box of legos. We had some crashes and laughter and learned it was ok to fail and try again. 2nd grade - In partners the students had to create simple wood patterns with planks that the other person couldn't see. Then they had to explain to the other person how to recreate the structure using only words. At the end they did the tallest tower challenge. They learned that the teams that worked the best together made the most progress. 3rd grade - The third graders were given different sized index cards and were told to build a structure 10" off the ground to hold stuffed animals (animals in the Houston zoo needed to be lifted off the ground in a possible flood situation). They could use as much tape as they needed. About 40% were successful and again we learned that failure was ok and redesign the way to go. 4th grade - 4th graders were given 1 manilla folder, a roll of tape and 15 minutes to build the tallest tower they could. They learned about the engineering design process and used it in this challenge. 5th grade - 5th graders were put in teams and given a bag of various recycled items. With the items they had to come up with a prototype of an invention in about 15 mins. Gingerbread man trap5th Grade Inventors 1st grade success! |
AuthorMy name is Anne Jarriel and I oversee the SteamWorks lab at Gullett Elementary. I'm blogging about what I see and lead in the STEAM lab which is mostly kids just having a great time! Archives
January 2018
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