This Week in STEAM

 October 19 - October 22

Another short week but still we are still "full STEAM ahead"!

Early Childhood

PreKindergarten and Kindergarten students have been developing their coding skills.  Students use a program called Kodable where they must create graphic code to help their Fuzzy friend through a maze.  The code blocks are simple directional arrows.  

Students learn that coding must be done one step at a time. PreKindergarten uses the iPad to code while Kindergarteners use the computers this year.  

Kodable allows the students to advance at their own pace in a pre-reading enviornment.  Some Kindergarten students have begun coditional statements ("if/then") using color blocks.  For example, if Fuzzy comes to a pink block then turn right.  

After mastering conditional statements students then learnt to code loops and functions - all with graphic blocks.

At the end of this unit, students will be sent home with a letter detailing how they continue to practice at home. Students will not be need to purchase Kodable to work with Kodable at home.  They will have a Class Code which will allow them to access their school account.  

I have included a video link if you are interested in learning more about Kodable.

Lower School

This week the Lower School classes took a break from the standard STEAM challenges to try Halloween themed challenges.  Grades 3 and 4 tried to escape a virtual Halloween Escape Room by solving puzzles and math logic problems. 

Grade 2 worked on a Halloween Structures and Mechanics Challenge.  After learning about the science of fall and discussing the constraints of building with rigid K'Nex pieces, students designed and built structures which reminded them of Halloween.

A Pumpkin Carving Tool

A Werewolf

A Spider

A Pumpkin Patch

A Skeleton

Virtual Learners joined us to design from home.

Middle School

This week Middle School students are finishing their first independent rotations.  At the end of each rotation students complete a Self-Assessment.  

This Self-Assessment asks students to examine how they used their 21st Century Skills of communication, time management and collaboration during their project.  Students identify their strengths and area of improvement within each skill.  This process was designed to help students develop these skills through awareness and ownership.