Third graders created an Animal Structures Museum to present the adaptations of our class pets to the other students and staff in the building. They developed 2-D and 3-D visuals to go along with their presentations, and spoke to the visitors of their museum in what they thought was the end of their STEM unit on animal structures. The next morning however, our third graders walked into the classroom wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Instead of our normal decor, they were surrounded by a crime scene and our axolotl (water salamander) was missing! Left behind was a note, a hair, a fingerprint, a shoe print, a rock, and some soil. Later that morning, the Goshen Police Department brought their Crime Scene Analysts and K-9 officer to our school to show us how they solve their own crimes. They demonstrated how to find evidence left behind, collect fingerprints off of surfaces, and present a case to the judge. The presentation ended with a Q & A session, and the GPD wished our third graders luck in their own detective work. Back in our classroom, students analyzed the photo reel from the museum day to come up with a list of possible suspects among the staff who had visited the day before. They created interview questions that would help them gather data, and generated a list of other types of evidence they heard about from the GPD and their prior knowledge. Over the next two weeks, students brought in each suspect for an interview. They collected fingerprints, shoe prints, handwriting sample, hair sample, and a home rock and soil sample from each suspect. All evidence was assembled into folders for further analysis. Over the next several weeks, students analyzed each piece of evidence and entered the data into a table. They studied the properties of rocks and minerals to determine if the sample left behind matched any of those brought in by the suspects. They learned how to use a microscope to examine hair and soil samples, and studied the types of soil from each suspect. They classified and matched the fingerprints and shoe prints. They analyzed the handwriting samples and looked through the interview records for any suspicious information. After weeks of hard work, students began to look at their data table to draw conclusions about which suspect they thought was the most likely culprit. Not everybody agreed, so students learned the importance of collecting high-quality data to support their opinions. They showed their work to Goshen Middle School student guests, who helped them analyze the evidence and draw their conclusions. Students then worked together in teams to create an interactive presentation in Educreations which detailed their final opinion and all of their supporting evidence. We invited the Goshen Police Department back to watch the final presentation from each team of students. The detectives considered each group's recommendation, and grilled the students on their opinions and matching evidence. The detectives left for the night to consider the evidence, and submitted their final decision in the morning to the students. It was Mr. Longcor, a 5th grade teacher! Students brought him into the room and asked for the return of the Axolotl, and he was happily returned to the classroom. Another mystery solved with the help of STEM education!
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Students combined their reading, social studies, and environmental science skills in a unit on primitive peoples. They examined a variety of timelines and maps to gain understanding of how Native Americans arrived in America, and why they would have settled in different locations. They then went on a scavenger hunt around the school to gather materials for clothing, housing, tools, and boats. They were required to build one example from each of the four categories with only those materials to learn how it might have been in primitive times.
Students were then assigned a region to focus their study. They analyzed the regional weather, vegetation, and animal life to determine what their lives would have been like in each region, and created folder dioramas to present a life scene from one of the regions. Students presented their dioramas to other students in our building, and then set them on display in the library. Students applied what they learned about the forces (gravity, drag/friction, natural force, lift) acting on an object to the topic of flight in their Paper Airplane Wars project. They researched different builds of airplanes and compared the features of each body style. They built and test-flew a number of different designs, and recorded how the forces acted on each plane differently to make their flight pattern different from the other planes.
After all of their work studying, designing, and building, they selected which plane to enter into each competition based on its strengths and weaknesses. The competition categories were: speed, distance, air time, straightness, turning, tricks, and design. Students recorded and graphed the competition results to determine the winners, and then analyzed why the winning planes beat out all the others based on their design. Students began learning about simple machines through Brainpop videos. They recorded examples that they saw and the uses of each machine, and drew diagrams to show how they worked. They then were challenged with building an example of each of the different types with materials from our Vector kits. They learned how kinetic and potential energies can power their simple machines. Next, students expanded their learning to alternative energies, and discovered how energy transfers from renewable sources to a vehicle. They researched different types of model cars they could build, and created their own designs. Students worked together in groups to construct their cars, making revisions as they went.
We invited a guest speaker from the local bike repair shop Chain Reaction to speak about how simple machines fit together into more complex machines. Students listened to the presentation, and then presented their own models to our guest for feedback. After making their final revisions, they presented their cars to guests from Heart City Toyota and McCormick Motors, who then took them outside to show them the motors of two alternative energy powered road cars. As part of our unit on fiction literature, our students developed their very own performance of the Nutcracker. They began by reading the script in narrative form and watching informational videos about ballet. This provided them with foundational understanding before they saw it as a live ballet performance at the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend. Students split into two groups and began to work on deciding how they were going to adapt the ballet for their own performance. They learned the difference between a ballet, a play, and a musical, and both groups decided that they would rather make it into a musical so that the characters could have speaking lines as well as dancing. For each scene the groups decided what actions each character would do, what dialogue they would say, what kind of music would accompany it, and what kind of dancing they would have. Once their scripts were finalized, they began production. Students sewed, crafted, and painted costumes, props, and backdrops. They learned about properties of music and sound effects, and composed songs for the mood of each scene using the app Rock Band. They choreographed the dances to show the emotions that the characters were feeling. They decided who would play which parts, and practiced their lines. Finally, the date arrived and each group of students performed their version of the play to the other.
Students combined their reading, writing, and social studies skills in our STEAM unit on perspectives in literature as they tried to decide if Goldilocks was truly innocent or guilty.
They began by reading The Three Little Pigs, and then The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. They analyzed the perspectives of both sides of the story as they considered the characters' motives, actions, and dialogue. They applied what they learned to The Tale of Goldilocks. Students also read about the government and citizens' rights and responsibilities to prepare for the trial. Students then learned about the different people in a court room, and decided which part they wanted to play in our trial. Goldilocks, the bears, and their lawyers prepared their statements by picking character traits that described Goldilocks from their viewpoint as that character in the story. They found text evidence and brought in the witnesses with their "photographic evidence" (the illustrations from the story) to prepare their official statements. They presented their arguments in the trial, and then the jury analyzed the evidence presented. After discussing what rights and freedoms each side had, the students of the jury decided that Goldilocks was guilty, and the bailiff brought her to jail. The recorder and translator kept track of everything in the trial. After the trial, everyone wrote into the newspaper on whether or not they felt the trial's outcome was fair. Students started their STEM coding journey by simulating being a computer (blindfolded partner) and an operator (partner with directions). The operator had to direct their "computer" through a maze with only commands of how many steps to take and which directions to turn. They had three tries to attempt the maze, and then revise their directions to fix the part that didn't work for their computer. They then took their understanding of how coding works to Code.org, and tackled 14 different levels of challenges relating to Minecraft, Angry Birds, Star Wars, and more. They had to communicate and work together with their partner as they troubleshooted and brainstormed how to reach each goal. Next, teams of students competed to build the best program for each of 10 challenges through the app Hopscotch. Examples of challenges were to build a dance party scene, a rainforest predator and prey scene, a space ship laser fight, and an obstacle course racetrack. Groups then gave each other feedback on whether or not they met all the criteria, and what they liked and would improve about their choices of characters, movements, sounds, and creativity to meet each challenge. Their project culminated when they were paired up with their kindergarten "client," and had to design and develop a program that would help them practice a skill they needed to work on. They created tests to find out the skill level of their kindergartner on three different skills, such as writing their name, saying the alphabet, counting to 100, or tying their shoes. They decided on criteria that would show them whether or not the student met proficiency.
After assessing their client and determining which skill they most needed to practice, they developed prototype game screens for three different game ideas. They presented them to their clients, who gave feedback and then picked their favorite one. The third graders then got to work coding their game. Before launching the final products, they met with 5th graders who helped them iron out any bugs they were having and polish up their programs. Finally, they played their finished game with their kindergartener. Students completed their Life Science unit with assembling and studying a vermicomposter. They first had to read step-by-step directions, and then took turns assembling different parts of it. They used different tools to put it together, measured the volume of different substances they added to the bedding, and then measured the mass of the food we put in. Students then began learning about the parts of worms, what kinds of foods they could eat, and what their environment needed to be so that they could be healthy. They observed a worm, measured it, and answered questions about it. Students will continue to observe, analyze, and track the vermicomposter throughout the year, and eventually begin to study and use the dirt it creates for our classroom plants.
We have been collecting questions and observations about our self-contained ecosystem tanks for the last several weeks. Students voted on which question we would investigate first, and it was "What is the axolotl's favorite food?"
Students first brainstormed possible answers by going outside and collecting things they could find, and looking through the cabinets for food. They chose one for their hypothesis. They then did preliminary research to make sure that they knew which things would be safe to try and which could be poisonous. They got to work deciding what the steps would be to get an answer, and determining parameters for their categories. They chose to have one student use tweezers to hold a food sample in the tank for 1 minute, and have someone else time how long it took the axolotl to eat it. The rest of the students would record the data and any observations in the data chart. They decided that the faster it ate the food, the more it liked it. They looked at their data and drew conclusions about its most favorite to least favorite foods. The results we found in order of preference were: Good Food Options
Maybe Food Options
Not Food Options
The students then had to decide how they were going to present their findings. They chose to make a menu for the axolotl so that anyone on feeding duty would know what would be the best food to give it. We analyzed different examples of menus, and they decided which ones presented information the most clearly and therefore which text features they would need to include in their own menus. They could choose to create it either on paper or with Educreations on the iPad. Our class received a grant from Donors Choose to build a self-sustaining ecosystem vivarium, and our materials were delivered yesterday! Students were very excited, and took turns setting up parts of the vivarium. They planted plants, arranged rocks, vines, and sticks, and put the animals into their habitat. Our tank has:
Since the tank was built, students have been using it for a variety of activities throughout the year. They wrote opinion essays about which animal was their favorite and why. They used it to introduce fractions by counting the number of animals they saw out of the total of that species in the tank. They learned about animal adaptations that its residents had, and then used clay to build models showcasing those adaptations. They continue to make observations about plant and animal health, take measurements of plants, and monitor the water quality to determine what changes need to be made for optimal ecosystem help. For example, after noticing an algae bloom, they researched what animals they could introduce to the ecosystem to address that problem, and decided to get a plecostomus fish to help balance the biodiversity. They also discovered snails that we had not intentionally introduced, which led to research and problem solving about snail eggs and overpopulation. Their largest project relating to the vivarium was a rainforest research unit. Students spent two weeks learning about the rainforest ecosystem, and making comparisons between our miniature version and the real thing. They also learned about text features, such as a glossary, index, headings, bold words, text boxes, captions, etc. They used this knowledge to author 14 page books about various topics surrounding the rainforest. After their rough drafts, editing, and final color draft copies were finished, they partnered up with a first grade class and read their books to them to teach them all about the rainforest. Then the first graders did their own animal research, wrote their own booklets, and invited the third graders back to read their books to them. |
AboutChandler Elementary is a STEAM powered school whose students learn state standards through authentic projects in collaboration with their larger community. Archives
May 2017
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