Kindergarten & 1st grade
One of my favorite units to teach is Math Stories. Each day begins with a book that I read aloud to the class. The books incorporate a variety of math concepts including number sense, measurement, geometry, and problem solving. After reading and discussing the day's story, The stories for Kindergarten and first grade are different of course. Thanks to our generous PTO, I was able to add several new math stories to the rotation this year. 2
2nd grade
Second grade completed the first half of a two part project this round. They were introduced to the practice of keeping a STEM lab journal. Using the Nat Geo Kids website, they researched an animal of their choice and took notes about it in their journals. The notes also included drawings of the animal and its habitat. They will use this information to complete the next part of the project when they return in round 3.
The highlight of this round, though was participating in Skype-a-Scientist. This program connects teachers with professional scientists working in a variety of fields. Students then have the opportunity to meet virtually with that scientist and ask questions about their field and the experience of being a scientist. I was matched with 2 different marine biologists, one who studies fish and another who works with marine mammals like seals and sea lions. The students asked some really excellent questions and both scientists remarked to me how impressed they were.
It was cardboard arcade time for 3rd grade. Students were challenged to make an arcade style game with cardboard, craft supplies, and other upcycled materials. We watched Caine's Arcade for inspiration, then students planned their projects and began building. This is the first big engineering project in the STEM lab curriculum and there was some definite trial and error as students worked out the best materials and construction methods for their games. I was impressed by the perseverance the students displayed, working through their frustration and reasching their goal. At the end of the week students presented their work to a visiting class of 1st graders and administrators. I love how excited they get to share their work with an authentic audience.
4th grade
Many of the learning experiences I design for students in the lab are meant to emphasize the natural connections between disciplines like computer science and engineering and other subjects like social studies, ELA, and fine arts. This round had students writing programs in Scratch that used key press inputs to play notes and drum beats. They used the Scratch Makey Makey extension which features a "cheat code" block that allows a sequence of key presses (e.g. left, up, and right arrow keys pressed in that order) to act as another input event. With that finished, students constructed an instrument used to control the program and play music. Students used copper tape and aluminum foil to create the keys/ strings/ drum heads for their instrument. Finally the cardboard instruments were connected to the Scratch programs with the Makey Makey i/o board and made beautiful music. The week ended with the classes sharing their work with Sinclair administrators and a visiting 2nd grade class.
5th grade
Our 5th graders completed the first half of a 2 part project this round as well, the mini museum room. First, they researched a self selected topic. I had a list of suggestions they could choose from, but I also allowed them to pick a topic of personal interest. With their research coomplete, they determined which objects would be included in their virtual museum room. The room includes a narrator that describes the importance of the objects to the room's topic. The narration was required to display text that is read by the the text to speech extension as an accessibility feature for the 2nd grade students they will present to in the next round. The full studio of virtual museum rooms can be seen here and one is embedded below (click the green flag, then press space).
