What can Electricity flow through?
Posted by Karen Engelke
This week in Grade 4 science, students demonstrated that some objects conduct electricity and some do not. Students constructed a simple circuit and observed that a penny, a piece of foil, and a paper clip conduct electricity, while a plastic spool and paper index card does not. They better understood how conductors of electricity allow currents to flow freely. Meanwhile, they observed that insulators resist the flow of an electric current.
Concept to Reality!
Posted by Lloyd Mitchell
Equipped with their design, power tools, paint and a block of wood, 5th grade tech students were tasked with the job of developing their own boxwood derby car. They successfully completed this multi space project, starting in the Tech Lab with the design process, to the Makerspace for the actual construction of their design and finally to the Art Room where their creativity came to life. Students proudly took a concept and turned it into a reality. Bravo, 5th grade!
Constructing Homes For Others!
Posted by Lloyd Mitchell
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- Team pride inspired!
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- Jackson Pollock inspired!
6th grade tech class ventured down to the Makerspace to tackle a two week project working with a different kind of tech! Students were tasked with constructing a birdhouse using power tools, screws, wood putty and paint. It was clear that this was a fun project by the amount of paint that made it onto our clothes instead of our birdhouses. But in the end, the projects were a great success and the neighborhood birds got some new homes as well!
Gummy Bear Wave Machine
Posted by Karen Engelke
Grade 4 has been studying Energy in Science. As part of the unit, they have been exploring wave properties. What better way to explore a concept in science than with the use of some kind of candy? So they created a Gummy Bear Wave Machine! It’s just duct tape, wooden skewers, and gummy bears, but it makes some really striking, beautiful effects when set in motion. As the gummy bears move up and down, energy is being sent from one end of the wave machine to the other. The duct tape twists in between each stick and passes it onto the next bit of tape between the sticks. This process continues until it reaches one end and then continues back the same way in which it came from. Once the wave machine was complete, guess who got to eat the leftover gummy bears?
Telling Time with the Sun!
Posted by Karen Engelke
Grade 4 has been working hard studying the Solar System. They recently worked with Mr. Casey in the Makerspace to create sundials, the oldest instrument for telling time. The surface of a sundial has markings for each hour of daylight. As the Sun moves across the sky, another part of the sundial casts a shadow on these markings. The position of the shadow shows what time it is. Once they finished creating the handmade sundials, they put them to the test outdoors. Thankfully it was a bright sunny day!
“Chopped” meets 5th Grade Science!
Posted by Colleen Noyes
What do rubber bands, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, tape and a bottle cap have to do with cooking? Well, nothing actually!! But if there was an engineering competition that was modeled after the popular cooking show Chopped then the Unquowa 5th graders would surely succeed! Students worked in groups, tasked with coming up with a design to make a functional catapult. Medieval meets Modern! It was pretty amazing to see the variety of designs these young scientists came up with. It was a fun day in Science!!!!!!!
