The fifth and sixth grade students are preparing for an upcoming project. They will be designing and engineering recycled racers. Green engineers think about how to solve problems in a way that prevents harm to the environment. The students will be creating their own "Scrap Market" to collect items that may otherwise be discarded to create their racers. If you are able to send in any of the items to our "Scrap Market", we would greatly appreciate it! You may send in the materials at your convenience. Thank you!
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What is motion? What are the different ways objects move? Can you change the speed of an object? Why does an object fall to the ground? These are all questions the students investigated this week. Each student was given a car, a piece of cardboard, and a partner. They were asked to use the cardboard to move the car without using any force of their own. Next, the students experimented with the angle of the cardboard. What angle would make the car move faster? Finally, the students discussed why the car moves to the bottom of the ramp on its own. We discussed the force of gravity.
Later that week, the students created marble art using the force of gravity. The marble moved around the box as the students changed the direction of the box. Gravity pulled the marble across the page to create a colorful show of motion and direction. The students have measured every part of the pumpkins, now they are finally ready to study what is inside. This week, the students learned what a diagram is, and created a diagram of a pumpkin. We cut open the pumpkins and identified the skin, stem, seeds, pulp, and flesh. The students then created a a diagram of a pumpkin using those five parts. As the students were creating the diagram, each student helped to scoop out the seeds so that they could compare their estimates with the actual number of seeds. Their reactions were very different! Some students couldn't wait to dig in, and others were a little grossed out! It was fun! The kindergarten pumpkin investigators were hard at work again this week! Each class reviewed estimation, and proceeded to estimate the number of lines on their pumpkin, as well as how many seeds are inside of their pumpkins. We sang a wonderful song to help the students remember what an estimate is, and here we go! After our estimation lesson, the students were introduced to force. They learned that force is a push or a pull that changes the position of an object. The students the used force to push the pumpkins back and forth to each other. We discussed the amount of force that is needed for a small pumpkin, and a large pumpkin.
After learning about the life cycle of the pumpkin, the kindergarten students took a closer look at its height, width, and weight. We ended the investigation with a quick experiment. Will a pumpkin sink or float. Each student determined their hypothesis, and then each group got a chance to test it! They were surprised at their findings, and had a wonderful time trying to get the pumpkin in and out of the water! They were large pumpkins!!!
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AuthorMrs. Houseman-STEM Specialist Archives
May 2017
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