It’s time for another update from the STEAM room.
Pre-K:
For the month of January, we have explored what it means to be an engineer. We have read picture books such as Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer to learn more about people who design and build amazing creations. They had the opportunity to build freely with STEAM bins, using Legos, Lincoln Logs, Bristle Blocks and so much more. Most recently, they were asked to help create a flying machine like Rosie Revere attempted in her book. The kids loved watching their machines fly along the zipline in the room.
Kindergarten:
This month we’re continuing our study of the human body, focusing specifically on the bones inside our bodies. They’ve learned that the bones have two very important functions: 1) to protect our soft, squishy insides and 2) to give our body a structure so that we don’t “squish, like a jellyfish.” They’ve most recently learned about the many bones in our hands and how having that many bones allows us to bend our fingers and move things with ease. They did an investigation to explore what it would be like if each finger was made up of just one bone, instead of three. They quickly learned that everything would be much more difficult.
1st Grade:
We recently started our unit on light and sound. Students are learning that sounds are created by vibrations. They had the opportunity to feel the vibrations on guitar strings, drums, cymbals, and tuning forks. They were all surprised with how much those vibrations can tickle when we touch them lightly. They also learned that when the vibrations stop, so does the sound. Students have recently worked with their table groups to build their own musical instruments that make sound using vibrations.
2nd Grade:
Students have been doing some hands-on investigating on the effects of different types of erosion on land. They explored how wind, earthquakes, glaciers, and water can all impact a land mass. They were shocked at how devastating massive amounts of water can be on land. They are now working to apply all that they’ve learned about erosion to help protect their little sand town from a landslide.
3rd Grade:
Students are loving our new Scratch programming unit. Students are working in teams to learn how to do paired programming. The “driver” is the student with their hands on the laptop, doing the physical clicking of buttons and moving of code blocks. The “navigator” is watching over their shoulder, helping guide and remind them how to perform various tasks. They take turns trying out each role. They’ve recently learned how to add a background, a sprite (character), music, and coding blocks to make their sprite move. Their most recent project was to create a dancing sprite, and we had some pretty awesome dancing ballerinas, dinosaurs, and even a dancing taco.
4th Grade:
This month, students have learned a lot about circuitry. They’ve learned how electricity can only flow within a closed circuit, but that they can open and close those circuits. Students loved seeing this in action as we used Energy Sticks, and we used our bodies to open and close circuits. We then created paper circuits using coin batteries, LED diodes, and copper tape. The students loved this, and I’m sure you’ve seen those come home. We then moved on to using Snap Circuits to turn on a light, make a fan move, and even produce sound through a speaker. Next week we will get to explore circuitry even further using Makey Makey sets that I was able to borrow from our ISD.
5th Grade:
Students are working hard to write code using VEX IQ software to help their robots move autonomously through the classroom course, just like the Amazon robots we watched move through their fulfillment centers. Students had to test often and change their codes as they noticed how their robots were moving. Sometimes they needed to adjust their distances and other times they needed to adjust the angles in which they were turning. It was great to see all of the collaboration and group effort as students worked to program their robots.
STEAM Supplies Request:
If you have any of the following items in your recycling bins, I would love to take them in the STEAM room. Thanks in advance! :)
Toilet Paper Rolls
Paper Towel Rolls
Empty Egg Carts
Empty Oats, Coffee, or Clorox Canisters
Empty Tissue, Shoe, or Cereal Boxes
