It may have been a short week but there was still plenty happening in the STEAM Lab.
Early Childhood
Nursery 2 friends completed the Jack in the Beanstalk building challenge. Students were challenged to build a beanstalk tower to the clouds using foam blocks and shaving cream. They explored how the shaving cream helps the blocks stick together while trying to build tall towers.
This is one of my favorite activities. It seems like it was a hit with the students, too!
Lower School
First Grade explored boxes this week. The project was introduced through a reading of the book "A Box Can Be Many Things" by Dana Meachen Rau.
Students were given a small box and challenged to turn it into something. The only tools they had were markers, scissors, small paper circles and glue sticks, and their imaginations.
They created jewelry boxes, shark cages, rocket ships, houses, cars, ramps and even a time machine.
Middle School
Eighth Grade is working with Epiphany House for one of their service projects this year. They will be using the skills they have learned in STEAM with the resources available in the Lab to create marketing materials for the Epiphany House. This week the students met with a representative of the Epiphany House via ZOOM to outline the project.
The students are excited to work with the Epiphany House.
Each week I will highlight work of different classes in each division. This week Nursery 3, Grade 3, and Grade 7 are highlighted.
Early Childhood
This week Nursery 3 had a challenge based on the book It's Not Easy Being Big! by Stephanie St. Pierre. This book features the familiar characters of Sesame Street and highlights the concept of comparitive size. Students were challenged to build a wall from LEGO blocks and balance plastic animals on the wall from biggest to smallest.
Bigger and biggest blocks
I read this book last spring during remote learning to the Nursery classes. The video is below. It includes another STEAM challenge on comparitive size that you can try at home.
Lower School
Grade 3 took advantage of the nicer weather to have STEAM class outside. They explored the concepts of flight this week as they were challenged to create paper airplances from three different types of paper to see traveled the furthest and stayed aloft the longest.
Lower school students also began work on coding. They used Kodable and Scratch. Students will continue to work on coding skills throughout the year as strong coding skills will allow them to work on more complex projects in Middle School. Coding was introduced in class. To help further develoip these skills, students will be provided with optional coding homework challenges and in addition to lessons in class.
Here is an example of a coding project created in Scratch by 4th Grader Juliana. It used block coding and loops.
Middle School
This week students in Middle School started individual rotations. During these rotations students work a partner but each pair is working on a different project. These initial rotations feature a variety of challenges so students can work to develop their breadth of knowledge of the systems of technology. In Grade 7 projects included claymation, website design, digital graphics through the creation of comic books, mechanics and structures using Zometools and K'Nex, and scientific data and analysis using Vernier sensors to test their design of insulated cups. All projects are designed to help students grow their 21st Century Skills.
The STEAM Lab was designed to teach students 21st Century Skills including collaboration. What does collaboration look like in 2020 when students can not sit at the same desk or work on the same materials? How can projects be adjusted to facilitate students learning to work together under these conditions?
This week students in Grade7 demonstrated how they could use technology to collaborate on a Media Literacy project.
Students were paired together for this project. Each group of students used a ZOOM breakout room to discussed their project as they worked.
They used Google Slides to collaborate on the documentation of their work.
The results of their collaborations were fake Instagram posts based on comical pictures. Each group had to create two posts - one that could be evaluated as credible and one that had the indications of a fake news story.
