Hi friends! Here's an update of what's happening in Mrs. Athearn's STEM Class:
Grade 5: 3D Printing and Tinkercad
I'm super excited to announce that Mr. Johnson and I got one of our 3D printers up and running last week! We've been making test prints to find the right dimensions for printing student designs for our 5th graders as they continue to learn 3D modeling in Tinkercad. Mrs. MacKenzie's class also got to help us out with test printing last week. 3D printing is a wonderful way to engage the students in learning, because they are so motivated to see their imaginations come to life in 3D form, however due to the time and cost associated with 3D printing, it is important to scale designs down to a small size to ensure that all students can print at least one project this year. I'll try to post some pictures of our designs as we print them.
To see what your child is creating, have them log on to their Project Ignite account from this url:
https://projectignite.autodesk.com/
Grades 3 and 4: Earthquake Engineering
Last week, students in grades 3 and 4 learned about the the need for earthquake engineering and the 2010 earthquake in the island country of Haiti. We learned that Haiti was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and most buildings, large and small, were completely destroyed. We also learned that part of why Haiti was so devastated was because construction codes, or safety rules for building, were not being enforced. Students also got to experiment with a shake table. Engineers use shake tables to test if buildings will survive an earthquake or not. Students will use shake tables again this week to test model structures and collect data about what types of building designs will be the most earthquake resistant. Students will use this data to come up with their own model construction codes that will be used to build a final earthquake resistant structure in a few weeks.
To see a life-size shake table in action at the University of California-San Diego, click on the link below:
https://youtu.be/duzcOkzwpDo?list=PLyy_4z9b5NrwmJYv2wBWuJT2DEsZwwUqn
Happy Halloween Everyone!
-Mrs. Athearn :)
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