Trying Out Our New Curio Cutting Tool

camera templates out of card stock

Making camera templates for a first grade notebook activity.

Very Special Thanks to Mark Lackley For Building A Woodworking Table for the STEM Lab.

Look at this gorgeous table!  It will be the cornerstone of our woodworking program in the STEM Lab.  Thank you also to Cliff Harper and Eric Goldberg for the donation of 5 Ryobi drills.  We are so lucky to have a dedicated and engaged parent body to support the creative learning of STEM at our school!

Fifth Grade Makes Mechanical Toys out of Straws

After School Club Constructs Balancing Toys

First Grade Designs a Model Tree To Shade The Earth.

Working together in teams, the first grade students got a wire "winter tree."  They had to shine a light on it from one foot above, and then trace the shadow it made.

Then came the arduous task of adding leaves (made of recycled packing paper and tape).  

Creating a tree - leaf by leaf!

The final step was to shine the light again from above, outline their summer shadow, and compare the two. 

Students learned about the properties of shading materials, and how effective a tree is at providing shade.

Fourth Grade Begins Their Waves Unit By Visiting Waves Stations.

The sound of a ruler when it is struck hanging off a table.

How do waves behave?

How do waves bounce off a surface?

Why do different elastics sound different?

Slinky waves

What does a tuning fork do to rice?

wave simulation site on Gizmos

Third Grade Engineers Bridges Out Of Drinking Straws

First they draw up their proposed design.  When their design is approved, then they get their materials - 10 straws and scotch tape.
 

The task is to build a bridge that can support the most weight.  Their design has to hold a Dixie Cup that will eventually be filled with pennies.  The goal is to hold the most pennies!

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Then the testing begins!

Our winner - at 220 pennies.

runner up - 210

Third place - single truss - 195 pennies

Second Grade Students Begin a Long Term Plant Study

Teams of two students each got a set of plants.

 They are changing one variable between the two plants to make a scientific test of the conditions of growth.

 Each plant will be put in different conditions. Some students are testing sunshine vs. shade. 

 Some are testing less water and more water.  We will watch our results over time to see the effects of the differences on plant growth.