These last two weeks have been a blast! The students are hands deep in learning without even realizing that they are using their science and math skills!
In their quest to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, the 5th graders have been creating models of how disease spreads by playing Zombie Tag and Infection Tag. We threw in a version called Humans Fight Back too! Students would play rock paper scissors after being tagged and if the human won, modeling how their immune system could beat the virus! We have been working on our creative writing skills and making our own versions of a Zombie Apocalypses through Google Classroom (which was a feat in itself to get 30 5th graders logged on to!). Finally we ended the week by creating another model of how we might prepare for an emergency evacuation if the Zombies were approaching! We estimated how much we could carry, many of us thought 40-60 pounds was no big deal, but with the help of 8lbs gallons of water we quickly found that we over estimated our strength! To test how our bags would affect our pace, we had students walk the main stairs with and without the backpacks filled with the water jugs (16-24 pounds). When we got back to class we learned how to find an average and compared the three fifth grade classes! We will have our first assessment score in the grade book next week, as well as the first notebook grade- that they have been doing their part and documenting our work in class- just as engineers do! It has been a whirl wind!
The 7th graders have been working just as hard, but with a medical science focus in mind! Last week I presented all four classes with a problem, they had to make a foot and ankle brace for a figurative patient with Cerebral Palsy given certain criteria. They were given 2 days to work in their teams and had to present their prototype on Wednesday! After seeing all of the cool ideas and designs we reflected on how well we worked as a team and created norms to follow to improve our collaboration skills! After deciding our norms we discussed the process they went through and how closely it reflected the Engineering Design Process. After reviewing the Engineering Design Process we jumped two feet into sketching! We have worked our way from simple Thumbnail sketches to Isometric sketching and they can't believe how cool it is to seamlessly draw three dimensional shapes! Grade have also been updated to reflect the first challenge as well as a small assessment!
We have had little to no homework for both grades! If you ever have any questions please feel free to contact me through my website or email me at school! [email protected]
Enjoy your weekend!
Mrs. Cullotta
In their quest to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, the 5th graders have been creating models of how disease spreads by playing Zombie Tag and Infection Tag. We threw in a version called Humans Fight Back too! Students would play rock paper scissors after being tagged and if the human won, modeling how their immune system could beat the virus! We have been working on our creative writing skills and making our own versions of a Zombie Apocalypses through Google Classroom (which was a feat in itself to get 30 5th graders logged on to!). Finally we ended the week by creating another model of how we might prepare for an emergency evacuation if the Zombies were approaching! We estimated how much we could carry, many of us thought 40-60 pounds was no big deal, but with the help of 8lbs gallons of water we quickly found that we over estimated our strength! To test how our bags would affect our pace, we had students walk the main stairs with and without the backpacks filled with the water jugs (16-24 pounds). When we got back to class we learned how to find an average and compared the three fifth grade classes! We will have our first assessment score in the grade book next week, as well as the first notebook grade- that they have been doing their part and documenting our work in class- just as engineers do! It has been a whirl wind!
The 7th graders have been working just as hard, but with a medical science focus in mind! Last week I presented all four classes with a problem, they had to make a foot and ankle brace for a figurative patient with Cerebral Palsy given certain criteria. They were given 2 days to work in their teams and had to present their prototype on Wednesday! After seeing all of the cool ideas and designs we reflected on how well we worked as a team and created norms to follow to improve our collaboration skills! After deciding our norms we discussed the process they went through and how closely it reflected the Engineering Design Process. After reviewing the Engineering Design Process we jumped two feet into sketching! We have worked our way from simple Thumbnail sketches to Isometric sketching and they can't believe how cool it is to seamlessly draw three dimensional shapes! Grade have also been updated to reflect the first challenge as well as a small assessment!
We have had little to no homework for both grades! If you ever have any questions please feel free to contact me through my website or email me at school! [email protected]
Enjoy your weekend!
Mrs. Cullotta