Wow! I can't believe it's been before winter vacation since my last update about happenings in the STEM classroom! We've been so busy learning computer science, robotics, and working on a very special design project for our school garden. See below for specific class updates!
-Mrs. Athearn
Grades 3 and 4
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| Earthquake resistant building test |
Third and Fourth graders wrapped up earthquake engineering in early January, and since then, we have been learning a ton of computer science concepts. The students have had a mix of plugged and unplugged programming lessons on Code Studio. We have been working on Course 2. The students feel like they are solving puzzles or creating interactive games and stories, but they are also building computer programs and learning fundamental computer science concepts like: algorithms, sequencing, looping, debugging, conditionals, events, and binary.
For more information or to try Code Studio for yourself, click on the link below to Code.org!
Code Studio
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| Angry Birds Maze in Code Studio |
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| Binary Bracelets |
Grade 5
Fifth graders in all of my STEM classes wrapped up their Tinkercad choice project in early January, and moved on to a few weeks of learning computer science in Code Studio. Unfortunately, due to snow days, some classes did not have as much time to practice building programs in Code Studio, but have no fear----we'll pick back up with Course 3 of Code Studio at the end of February and beginning of March. Here are some photos of the Tinkercad choice projects. They all came out great! Some students were unhappy that their design didn't 3D print exactly the way they had expected, but alas 3D printing is not a perfect technology. Overall, I think most students were pleased.
Tinkercad Choice Projects
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| Log Cabin |
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| Christmas Cat |
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| Family House |
Mrs. Young, Mrs. A-C, and Mr. Reagan's Classes
Students in Mrs. Young's class are designing their own robots made from cardboard, popcicle sticks, other recycled materials and LittleBits electronics. The robot must be able to imitate human actions. Stay tuned for pictures!
Students in Mr. Reagan and Mrs. Ash-Cuthbert's classes are making robots from our Lego Robotics kits. Students must first build a robot model from one of the instruction booklets, program it to move or make sound with Lego WeDo software, and then they can design a totally unqiue robot of their choosing. Here are some photos of the robots created so far!
Mrs. Alves, Mrs. Ouellette, and Mrs. McPherson's classes:
Students in Mrs. Alves, Mrs. Ouellette, and Mrs. McPherson's classes are working on a design project for our school garden. They are designing a garden gallery fence that will be created in life-size form by high school students from Portland Arts and Technology High School!
I have been working with Mrs. Hewitt and Mr. Johnson on this exciting project. Mrs. Hewitt approached me with the idea of designing a garden fence at the beginning of the year. She was inspired by a wrought iron decorative piece that she found this past summer, and she knew she'd like to add on to her granite outdoor classroom project.
Then, we got together with our art teachers, Mrs. Maloney and Ms. Willwerth, and they had the awesome idea to turn the fence into a gallery for hanging art sculptures! We were able to secure a grant from the Scarborough Education Foundation to help fund this project, and the art teachers will be welcoming an artist in residence to create wind sculptures with the students this spring.
High school students in the blacksmithing and metalwork program at PATHS will be sending us updates on the construction of our gallery fence later this winter and spring. We will be sending our plans to PATHS over February break, and then we hope to have the fence installed this spring or summer. Here's the challenge criteria and constraints that I gave to the students for the gallery fence. Students could choose to create a prototype model in Tinkercad, or build one using popsicle sticks, or create a scaled drawing.
Wentworth Garden Gallery
An Interactive Art Fence
Learning goal: Use the EDP to design and create model prototypes of an ornamental gallery fence for our Wentworth school garden.
Criteria:
- Must fit in designated space in the garden to act as an entrance to the outdoor classroom.
- Must have 24, square foot openings to accommodate hanging art sculptures.
- Can be stylized with themes of nature and Scarborough, but it should have a simple enough design to complement the hanging art.
Stay tuned for photos!!
-Mrs. Athearn
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