S.P.A.C.E News!!!
What we've been up to!
2nd and 3rd Grade
We have transitioned into a new unit called "The Penguin Predicament". This problem based learning (PBL) unit requires students to ask questions, gather information and analyze their findings to solve a problem. Students hear about a penguin that was found on a beach and has been taken home to be cared for by a 10 year old girl. The girl implores the students to help her answer a few questions about the penguin in order to keep it safe.
Through exploration and inquiry students learn core content. This unit supports the second grade Science SOL strands of Living Systems- including habitats, and the interdependency of living and nonliving things. In third grade, this unit reinforces SOL 3.4 and 3.5. Students will be able to explain behavioral and physical adaptations as a result of their study of the Penguins. They will also be able to explain an aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the role of humans in conservation. (SOL 3.6)
4th and 5th Grade
We have wrapped our Environmental Detectives unit in the fourth grade- with fifth grade soon to follow . Students are now researching and investigating a polluted area in our world. The students are applying what they learned in the Gray Bay Area to their real-life world example. Students will collect information, and find ways to clean up a polluted area and present their findings to the class.
Kindergarten- Project Impact
I have been working with your children to begin to build their creative and critical thinking skills.
I push into your child's classroom and facilitate an engineering lesson. The students have asked questions, built, and improved their models to show their understanding. Since January, we have engineered pillows, noisemakers, and fans. These inquiry based lessons were created by the Museum of Science in Boston. For more information feel free to visit their website at eie.org/wee-engineer and eie.org/EiE-for-Kindergarten for more information.