Kindergarten and first grade have been learning about building materials, and about the design process. They used note cards to design and build towers and bridges. I amazed by the variety of forms they created. We also studied the basic bridge types and learned how they work. We sang "London Bridge is Falling Down" in its entirety and discussed the various materials used to build it up before it fell once more. Then, the students built models of different bridge types and tested them to determine the strongest design. Students used what they learned from their note card building to design a house. They tested the structural soundness of their designs by placing them in front of a fan that played the part of the Big Bad Wolf trying to blow their houses down. Most of the designs needed some work after the first and second tests, but, eventually, everyone solved the problem of making a stable structure. The classes have also spent some time making progress on their Code.org courses.
The second through 5th grade classes have split their time between building and experimenting with simple machines and taking their programming skills to the next level. Using K'Nex building kit provided by 8 generous patrons through Donorschoose.org, students constructed levers, pulley systems, and gear trains. They altered gear arrangements and discovered the effects that gear size and position have on the speed and power of the system. Using a model of a balance, they experienced the advantages conferred by using a longer lever to do work. We also constructed pulley systems and saw that more wheels in the mechanism make it easier to raise a load.
The upper grade students used the programming language Scratch to create games and animations. The main difference between Scratch and the puzzles on Code.org is the amount of creativity the students can bring to their projects. It is block-based like Code.org but far more versatile owing to the large variety of commands available.
This Saturday, 6 members of the chess/UIL team will be competing in their first meet. In addition to participating in the Chess Puzzle event, a few students are in the Number Sense competition and in Spelling. The next UIL meet is at the end of January and I will be looking to expand the number of students participating beyond the chess team. Follow the link to learn more about UIL in HISD and let me know if your child is interested in representing Sinclair in any of the events.
The coding club started using the text-based programming language Python a couple weeks ago. It really made them appreciate the blocks used in Scratch, but it was an excellent experience in careful attention to detail and debugging.
Below is a collection of pictures of what we have been doing. Check back again soon.
