Thursday, July 2, 2015

Marshmallow Towers

This was quite the feat!  I'm amazed at what the groups were able to create with such limited resources!  Here are our final projects, though it should be noted that they were all taller prior to the marshmallow.




Research Presentations, Day 2

Here are links to our remaining digital presentations:

Ocean Life

How Minecraft was Created

Ferrari F1 Team

Vaquita

Red Fox

Urban Landscapes, Take II

We had better success today!  The students had 15 minutes to plan improvements, and another 15 minutes to build.

Before:



After:




Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Research Presentations, Day 1

Here are links to the digital files the students created.  Impressive!

Wolves

Sharks - presentation
Sharks - written report

Marvel - written report

Electricity - written report

Crested Caracara


Literature, Week 2


We completed our reading of A Long Walk to Water today.  This story illustrates incredible resolve and will through the story of Salva Dut.  His amazing, and difficult, journey ends with inspiration.

I would say more, but I don't want to give anything away, as this is a book worth reading.

I was extremely impressed with the students' reactions to the story themes.  Our discussions surrounding the events of the story and our predictions as to what would, or could, occur, were significant and meaningful. 

Urban Landscape - Take I

Students created cities out of cardboard, index cards, and foil.  The groups were quite imaginative!



Then, they were given 15 minutes to plan how they would use the technologies we have explored to keep our pollutants out of their rivers.  These are their urban landscapes with their pollution reducing technologies:


 Uh oh!  Pollution has landed!  The students chose the sequins to represent plastic litter, the sprinkles to represent dog poop, food coloring to represent general chemicals, and dish soap to represent gas & oil from cars.




After 300 sprays of water, there was very little pollution in the rivers, but still more than we would like.  Tomorrow, the groups will be able to improve their plans, and we will test their technology again.