“Chopped” meets 5th Grade Science!

Woodworking!

Energy and Energy Transformation

The first lab of the year for 8th graders was an incredible success! Students spent a week learning about potential and kinetic energy along with other various forms of energy (sound energy, thermal energy, electromagnetic energy, chemical energy, elastic potential energy, and more!) and then applied their knowledge by designing and building a functioning roller coaster. Students were placed into groups and moved outside to the back of the school where their creations began! Once students were happy with their tracks, they were given marbles to test if it would actually work. Along with designing and building these roller coasters, students were asked to answer a few lab questions regarding their designs. For example, the students drew models of their tracks once completed and then labeled their “blueprints”. These labels included information such as the types of energy present, where they are present, as well as why they are currently in effect. Overall, all of the students were able to construct working designs which were a blast to build!

Solar Oven S’Mores

Fourth graders used their knowledge of passive solar design to create something delicious! After a review of thermal energy transfer and passive solar design from our STEM projects back in March, fourth graders decided to put this knowledge to the test. Could radiation from the sun bake s’mores? In the Makerspace we carefully, measured, cut, taped, and folded ordinary pizza boxes and a few other items, each with their own design purpose. The end result was a solar oven. We filled the ovens with graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows and set them out in the warm May sunshine to cook. After a couple of hours we returned to find an oooey, gooey tasty treat made by the sun’s radiation, absorption properties of black paper and the reflective properties of foil.

The Marshmallow Challenge

Our fourth graders are up for any challenge…but especially one titled, “The Marshmallow Challenge.” Students were given precise measurements of tape, spaghetti, string and one marshmallow. The challenge was to build the tallest, free-standing structure possible with the marshmallow on top. This was a lesson in design-failure-redesign…officially called The Engineering Process. We learned that things often need to be redesigned multiple times before a viable solution is reached and failure does not mean the end. We also learned that scientists support and help each. Great resilience and team building skills emerged in the fourth grade science classroom today!

Do You Hear That?

Sixth grade continues to explore robotics! To gain a better understanding of how sound waves travel and are measured, we first used an app for measuring the room’s sound in decibels. We then used our robots to see how various different sounds are measured so that we could understand how to program the robots to successfully follow sound commands. Our initial trial run ended in a robo crash, but trial 2 proved successful! We are about to begin our culminating activity in our robotics unit – students will use their new sensor skills to program the robots to tackle a real world problem with automation. We look forward to seeing the results of our hard work!