We got the Spheros back out in Room 103 this month for a lesson about mass. Students loaded down the Sphero chariots with LEGOs and compared how quickly they could stop as compared to a Sphero without the extra load. This lesson fit perfectly into our unit on force and motion and in fact worked better than the lesson that was provided through our science curriculum!
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We had a wonderful time with the parents from one of our classes, the Monchilovs. They came in with all of their very interesting equipment and showed the kids just what they can do with a robot in the every day. Click Here for a glimpse of our day courtesy of iMovie trailer. We had animals running wild in room 102 today as the students finally got to test out their Spheros. We named each Sphero after a different animal (cat, dog, horse, bear, fish, etc.). Each group created a maze on paper and then transferred it to a shower curtain. The students didn’t realize how difficult it was to maneuver the robots through tight corners and small boxes. They quickly realized that next time they created a maze there would need to be major adjustments.
Our second activity involved the wide open spaces of our playground block top. We used the two types of Sphero covers, Turbo and Nubby, to race the Sphero minions over a set distance. Working in teams of three, (one running the robot, one timing, and one counting down the start) we collected data for each team member and each cover. The plan is to repeat this experiment in the Winter and Spring to see if environmental factors effect the results.
Whew! What a busy month for the STEM Sisters! We gave our students a drawing pretest, asking them to draw pictures of a scientist, technologist, engineer, and mathematician. Here is my favorite! So glad the cat is wearing a hard hat; he is next to an erupting volcano after all!! And why is the math classroom on fire? We also asked our students to design mazes for the Sphero robots we ordered this summer. I enjoyed watching the students collaborate to make a group maze and practice driving the robots. The fifth graders actually did much better than I thought they would. I'm pretty sure most of them were better at manipulating the Sphero than I was… Next year we will definitely have to make their challenge more demanding. The last exciting thing I worked on in my room was asking parents with STEM careers to come in and speak to the class. I've got a couple parents lined up and several more said they'd be willing to send in some information about their jobs, even though they couldn't come themselves. I'm excited about the personal connections students will be making to many careers they didn’t know a lot about.
It was an exciting few days as our supplies began to arrive. It was almost like the delivery man was teasing us because several box came on Monday but the box we wanted the most was actually the last to arrive. Isn't that always how it happens? Lucky for us though, they came just in time for the school open house so we were able to let our kids in on what exciting things we would be doing. Here is the box with a good number of the Sphero robots we ordered for our STEM craziness this year. With them, we will be implementing robotics lessons into our math and science classes. Looking forward to sharing the lessons with everyone! Our two weeks of STEM training at SVSU have wrapped up and I am so excited by the amazing contacts we made and all of the things we learned. I’ve already found my Sphero storage solution which will somewhat resemble a house for “my minions”. That’s right, in our 4th grade class the Spheros will be named after Gru’s minions. I already have Bob and Stuart. They will be joined by more than half a dozen friends; Dave, Jerry, Phil, Kevin, Tim, etc. We will also be working on making space for my STEAM makerspace area. It can be hard to figure out but I think we are mostly there. It will be very interesting to see how everything works together. Although I’m not wanting summer to be over just yet, I’m really looking forward to getting started! Just wrapped up our summer STEM training made possible with the Dow Corning Foundation and Saginaw Valley State University and WOW! I have learned a lot! I am so excited to try adding robotics to my fifth grade classroom with Sphero and specifically targeting students’ opinions about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Revamping my classroom to be more STEM oriented is rather daunting, so on this raining Saturday I’ve decided to focus on “hunting and gathering” ideas from the internet. Today, I think I’ll focus on collecting interesting math stories from history to use throughout the year as daily math lesson launches and get students drawn into what they are learning. I also found this nifty bulletin board on Pinterest I thought I’d share! I don’t have very much wall space in my classroom but I will find a way to incorporate it somehow! We are spending some time at SVSU right now listening to various speakers from engineering, math, physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Some of these people may be available later on to come and visit our classrooms as guests. We are learning a lot different areas of STEM as we get ready to finalize our grant project for the fall. The STEM Sisters have been selected for the Dow Corning Foundation/SVSU STEM Community Partnership. This program includes a two week summer workshop as well as funding for a STEM based project to be conducted with each of their classes throughout the 2016-17 school year. Their project will be presented at a SVSU symposium for the Dow Corning Foundation/SVSU STEM Community Partnership in the spring of 2017.
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AuthorThe STEM Sisters are Elementary Teachers working together on STEM related topics and projects. Archives
January 2020
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