Great 5th grade unit that was developed by Tom Kiehfuss at San Pedro. Tom used "The Fabulous Perpetual Motion Machine" by Don Abramson for his close reading text (from Pearson). Google it! 3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design 3-5-ETS1-1 Engineering Design 5-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity 5-PS3-1 Energy (focusing mainly on the crosscutting concept that Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects). Power Point was too big too attach to this site. I converted it to a PDF. Please email me if you want the Powerpoint version 4th grade at Dixie used the EIE Windmill unit. Megan writes: "I didn't have enough time to go through the whole unit so I pieced together a 6 lesson mini unit. I also modified the materials that were used to construct the windmills." Building windmills at Bahia Vista, Colin Johnson, 4th grade (Using Engineering is Elementary lessons) 6th Grade- Davidson Middle School- John Flanagan
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5th grade at Dixie had the students become birds and did an activity to help them see how different beaks pick up different food. The students collected the data and started to create bar graphs to compare the different beaks with the types of food they are made to eat. 3rd grade from Glenwood did the same beak lesson.
Coleman tests their first iterations of their nests. Bird nest videos from Michelle Giraud, 3rd grade, Sun Valley: "Below you will find 2 videos that support the bird nest lesson. I have shown these and additional ones to my class and they love them. At first, I struggled with when to show it. I decided to show it a few days before they had the chance to actually create their own. Seeing the videos made the idea of creating a nest more realistic and I think they had a better vision than if not seeing it." I attended a NGSS workshop that used the bird beak as a lesson that could encompass many of the concepts in the new standards. I have linked the lesson they used (Lawrence Hall of Science) and took some pictures. They used a variety of "beaks" and a wide variety of "food." They also had an interesting way to graph it at the end. Check out the pictures!
White Hill 7th graders learn about how structure and function are related while building a "circulatory system." Thanks Kaki!
Miller Creek's 7th grade science teachers proposed a challenge to their students: Build a helmet that will protect someone's head from injury. They built small prototypes that would cover an egg and then tested them. Some of the rules: They had to be able to be take off the helmet (Does anyone wear a helmet to bed?), it could encompass the egg (No one has a floating head!), and withstand a face first fall from a specified distance. Here are some pictures of what happened. Thanks Sue Holland, Janice Woods and Erik Lunde! 2nd year of the helmet project. Survivors! Students were given straws and paper clips to build the strongest bridge that weighs the least (least amount of supplies). They can test their designs, re-design, and test again. Each day they fill out an exit slip about what problems they have encountered and possible solutions so the next day they are reminded what they did the previous day.
Many classroom are incorporating the stream tables into their curriculum this year. Below is how two 4th grade classes at Dixie did it. Please share in the comments anything you learned from your experiences! 3rd Grade from Glenwood
Bahia Vista 5th graders work on catapults for accuracy and distance. More catapult information and designs from Coleman's 5th graders. Catapults from 5th graders at San Pedro Catapults from 5th graders at Dixie
Below are pictures from 3rd, 4th , and 5th grade classes, and their clay boat lessons. Check out the comments below and feel free to add any ideas and helpful management tips! IgnitedLearning, established by our colleague Nate MacDonald from White Hill Middle School won best in class at the San Mateo 2015 Maker Faire. The site was built by teachers for teachers to provide educators with the supplies and lesson ideas to encourage and stimulate the Maker Educator community. Nice job Nate! |
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February 2017
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iTEAMS is a professional development research project designed to provide teachers with support to deepen their content knowledge and pedagogy to promote STEM education aligned to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
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