Monday students are using the LEGO WeDo kits to learn basic programming and mechanics, while practicing their communication, collaboration and team-building skills.
As the second quarter ends, students are ending the research phase of their projects and are discussing how they plan to share their information. Is it a solid? Is it a liquid? It's a non-Newtonian fluid! Students were presented with a mixture of cornstarch and water (recipe here) and encouraged to explore the differences in its viscosity in both states.. When it is held lightly it slimes through your fingers and when held tightly it becomes harder and almost pliable. Students were assigned the task of designing and constructing a landing pad for an egg using only copy paper and masking tape. The landing pad was to prevent a chicken egg from breaking after it had accelerated under the force of gravity for a distance of one meter. Science concepts of gravity, kinetic energy, and acceleration were explored. To celebrate King Tut Day we danced to Steve Martin's comedic take on Tutmania. Sixth Graders enjoy our annual dance and sing-a-long. Exploring lift, rotation, and the functions of a wing or rotor, students engineered artificial Spaghetti Flies. Students began with a question, gathered evidence, and used their results to formulate answers while observing density in this science experiment. |