On Thursday April 28th, RES students in grades 2-4, and CHMS students in grades 6-8 experienced virtual field trips through the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program. Google Expeditions is a new product that allows teachers to take their classes on virtual field trips, immersing students in experiences that bring abstract concepts to life and giving students a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom. These trips are collections of virtual reality panoramas — 360° photo spheres, 3D images and video, ambient sounds — annotated with details, points of interest, and questions.
Several months ago RES third grade teacher Tonya Darby applied for our students to get this opportunity to try a new and innovative technology! Students in second grade traveled to China, and even got to see pandas in the wild! This trip connected to their unit on cultural studies around the world and helped to further extend their learning about a country that they have been learning about over the last month. Students in third grade traveled west to support their social studies learning about life on the Oregon Trail. Fourth graders traveled to Mars, connecting to their solar system unit of study, and allowing them to see close up a planet beyond Earth!
We are thankful to the Pioneer program for their support as well as teachers and staff who gave time and classroom space to host this great experience.
Want to learn more about the Expeditions Program? Check out: https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/
OR ask your student "Where did you go today?!"
(Thank you to Mr. Berry for sharing his video & blog post with us!)
Friday, April 29, 2016
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Engineering Design
In third grade enrichment this year our classroom activities have been fairly well synched to the work students are doing in their regular classroom. Our work has focused on enhancing and adding to the science and social studies curriculum. However for the last four weeks, we left this lock step and students have been spending time in enrichment experiencing the engineering design cycle. Time in the enrichment classroom is often spent making and creating, but for this challenge I wanted students to have a larger purpose. Accordingly to the Engineering is Elementary website (http://www.eie.org/overview/engineering-design-process) in order to experience an engineering design cycle, students must ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.
Ask--What is the problem?
We began our engineering design cycle by asking the question: What bugs you? After we clarified that siblings did not count (!) and that students had to think about things in their daily life, or community or world problems that bothered them..the ideas began to flow! Each student began with an Inventor's journal in which they wrote down their 'bugs'. This was an odd experience for us...spending a large chunk of time just documenting negative things.....but we discussed the idea that often great inventions are born from necessity or the desire to improve something. Many students wanted to jump right into creating, but to honor the design cycle we spent one class period simply asking questions. I encourage you to talk to students about what bugged them. The lists were thoughtful and interesting. Some students focused on one particular issue and spent time thinking about the constraints and how others have approached fixing the problem, while others listed many ideas! Since students had just completed a persuasive essay, I encouraged them to try to think of physical things that they could manipulate, design or change. A very few students really struggled to think of any issue that they felt worth working on and so they brainstormed with myself or a partner. (Can you imagine if nothing bugged you? I think that sounds nice, so could not find fault in that feeling if they truly meant it!)
Imagine- What are some solutions? Brainstorm and pick your best idea!
On the second day students read back through their problems. Some added a new problem they had thought of since our last meeting too. Then the creative process began. Some drew pictures, others wrote down ideas, some talked to a classmate or me. Students added an idea or ideas to their Inventor's Journal of how they would solve their problem.
Plan- Draw a diagram and make lists of materials you will need.
Before leaving our class on the second day, students had to create a materials list. They let me know what they might need to build a prototype.
Create- Follow your plan and create a prototype. Test it out.
Last week students began building their prototypes. We had many successes and many failures. We learned that sometimes making something is harder than imagining how to make it!
Improve- What works? What doesn't? What could you do better?
We are finding that improving and creating are happening all together as students iterate on ideas as they complete their prototypes.
By next week our goal is to have a working prototype that students can bring home to share with families. I also challenged students to think of a name for their invention!
As we wrap up, stay tuned for a video of their awesome prototype inventions!
Original Post on Mrs. Rankin's "Enrichment at RES" blog.
Tomatoes in Space?!
(Originally posted on Mrs. Rankin's "Enrichment at RES" blog.)
This year students from Richmond Elementary School are participating in the TomatoSphere project in third grade to connect with their interdependence science unit. This is an amazing opportunity to participate in a real citizen science project. Last Friday we planted our blind study seeds as well as made predictions as to which seeds would yield the best tomato plants. Over the next few weeks we will watch and record our findings.
Here is information about this project as described on the TomatoSphere website http://tomatosphere.org:
____________________________________________________
What is Tomatosphere™?
Tomatosphere™ uses the excitement of space exploration to teach the skills and processes of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Students investigate the effects of the space environment on the growth of food that will inevitably support long-term human space travel.
Pictured above is NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly with 600,000 Tomatosphere™ seeds. These space-faring seeds will be distributed to about 18,000 classes in Canada and the US during the 2015-16 school year. The seeds were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on board SpaceX’s Dragon on April 14, 2015 and will return to Earth after spending 5 weeks in space.
What does the program involve?
Each classroom is sent two packages of tomato seeds. One package contains seeds that have been sent into space or treated in space-simulated conditions. The other package will contain "control" seeds, which have not been in space. Through the Tomatosphere™ project, students will learn how to conduct a scientific experiment and compare the germination rates of the two groups of seeds. Tomatosphere™ relies on a "blind test" in which educators and students will not know which of the two packages are the "space" seeds and which are control seeds until the germination process is complete and results have been submitted.Watching these seeds germinate and grow will encourage classroom dialogue about the elements of life that support the requirements for space missions:- food, water, oxygen and the need to consume carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts. Traveling to and from Mars could take more than two years, therefore it is vital to know how to grow food while astronauts make the journey to the Red Planet, spend time on Mars and make the return journey back to Earth.
The results from your Tomatosphere™ science experiments will help Canadian scientists understand some of the issues related to long-term space travel. It’s an out-of-this-world opportunity for your students!
Why grow tomatoes in space?
Tomatoes are practical and valuable plants for space applications. They provide wholesome nourishment, as well as purified water through evaporation from their leaves.
____________________________________________
All the seeds are planted! One tray for each Grade 3 class
Tiny precious experimental seeds and careful scientists at work!
Students predicting which seeds will grow the most tomatoes
Thinking about ensuring this is a fair experiment.
This year students from Richmond Elementary School are participating in the TomatoSphere project in third grade to connect with their interdependence science unit. This is an amazing opportunity to participate in a real citizen science project. Last Friday we planted our blind study seeds as well as made predictions as to which seeds would yield the best tomato plants. Over the next few weeks we will watch and record our findings.
Here is information about this project as described on the TomatoSphere website http://tomatosphere.org:
____________________________________________________
What is Tomatosphere™?
Tomatosphere™ uses the excitement of space exploration to teach the skills and processes of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Students investigate the effects of the space environment on the growth of food that will inevitably support long-term human space travel.
Pictured above is NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly with 600,000 Tomatosphere™ seeds. These space-faring seeds will be distributed to about 18,000 classes in Canada and the US during the 2015-16 school year. The seeds were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on board SpaceX’s Dragon on April 14, 2015 and will return to Earth after spending 5 weeks in space.
What does the program involve?
Each classroom is sent two packages of tomato seeds. One package contains seeds that have been sent into space or treated in space-simulated conditions. The other package will contain "control" seeds, which have not been in space. Through the Tomatosphere™ project, students will learn how to conduct a scientific experiment and compare the germination rates of the two groups of seeds. Tomatosphere™ relies on a "blind test" in which educators and students will not know which of the two packages are the "space" seeds and which are control seeds until the germination process is complete and results have been submitted.Watching these seeds germinate and grow will encourage classroom dialogue about the elements of life that support the requirements for space missions:- food, water, oxygen and the need to consume carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts. Traveling to and from Mars could take more than two years, therefore it is vital to know how to grow food while astronauts make the journey to the Red Planet, spend time on Mars and make the return journey back to Earth.
The results from your Tomatosphere™ science experiments will help Canadian scientists understand some of the issues related to long-term space travel. It’s an out-of-this-world opportunity for your students!
Why grow tomatoes in space?
Tomatoes are practical and valuable plants for space applications. They provide wholesome nourishment, as well as purified water through evaporation from their leaves.
____________________________________________
All the seeds are planted! One tray for each Grade 3 class
Tiny precious experimental seeds and careful scientists at work!
Students predicting which seeds will grow the most tomatoes
Thinking about ensuring this is a fair experiment.
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