We had a great first rotation in the STEM Lab! Every kindergarten through 5th grade student at Sinclair has started a course in computer programming through Code.org and I had 4 students complete their courses. I am so proud of the progress all of the students have made and their hard work to persevere through some challenging tasks. Students will continue working on enhancing their programming skills as the year progresses.
The second STEM Lab rotation will focus on engineering and mechanics. Kindergarten an first grade will learn about structures and the engineering design process by upcycling various materials to build solutions to a variety of challenges. The second through fifth grade classes will be building simple machines using K"Nex kits which I received thanks to the generosity of 8 awesome supporters via Donorschoose.org. They will experiment with different designs in order to determine the most efficient design for a job. The building unit will culminate with teams designing a compound machine that performs a specific task. In addition, 2nd through 5th grade will employ their new coding skills to challenges using the programming language Scratch. This will allow them apply their knowledge to designing and creating original programs.
The chess team, coding club, and robotics club are moving right along. I am impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity that the students bring each week. The chess team beginners are making great progress, those that knew the basics of the game are learning how to approach the types of puzzles they will see at the UIL contests. The coding clubbers are doing an amazing job of learning to create animations and drawings in Scratch. The robotics club is learning to program the robots to drive along a course, and, more importantly, how to work as a team.Check back in a few weeks to see how the engineering unit is going. If you have any questions, or you would like your child's login information for their Code Course (I have given it to many students, but I know things get lost), please contact me.
