STEM - Halloween Pumpkins

STEM Project - Halloween Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!  The classes had a BLAST building structures today with toothpicks and candy pumpkins. They made some really great pieces!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!

Energy Cumulative Project

Electricity and Our Final Energy Project

The last component of energy we learned about was electricity. Each class completed a KWL chart at the beginning and end of the week. 

We learned that electric current is caused by moving electrons inside atoms. Students learned to distinguish positively charged atoms, negatively charged atoms, and neutrally charged atoms based on the number of protons and electrons. 



Students learned about simple and complex circuits. We also had guest speakers from Alabama Power come and do lessons about electricity, power lines, and safety.

We culminated our study of energy with group projects. Students created interactive posters displaying different forms of energy based on the following rubric:

Friday, each group presented their interactive poster to the class!

Spooky Fraction Avenue

I'm finally caught up! Yay! :)

With Halloween approaching, I wanted to incorporate the theme into math. 

This week, students created Spooky Fraction Avenue!  

They were given the following criteria for creating their "spooky street":

Students had to determine how many houses fit each piece of information. In some cases, they needed to convert the fractions to 8ths.

I think they did a terrific job, don't you?

STEM- Roller Coasters

STEM Project: Roller Coasters!

As an exciting project to coincide with our study of energy and forces, students had the opportunity to create paper roller coasters in class. Marbles were used on the coasters to demonstrate potential and kinetic energy, centrifugal force, gravitational force, acceleration and deceleration.  Students were asked to present their coasters to the class and describe all of the components. A rubric that included demonstration and application of knowledge, teamwork, and planning was used for grading.

Before we made the 3D, working coasters, students were given the following:

"Congratulations! You have been chosen to design a new roller coaster for Six Flags! Use your knowledge of energy and forces to draw, label, and present your new coaster. Don't forget to give your coaster a name!"

The final products were AWESOME!  Here are a few examples.

"Rainbow Road"

"Zip-iddy-do-dah-YAY"

"Wonderous Winder"

"The Dizzy Dome"

Students brought in materials such as cardstock paper, construction paper, toilet paper and paper towel tubes, tape, glue, and craft sticks to create their marble coasters. 

The goal was to create a marble coaster that included demonstrations of potential energy, kinetic energy, gravitational force, acceleration and deceleration. Some groups were able to create centrifugal forces through "time-wasters", cones, and even a loop!

Here are videos of 2 of the final coasters.

The students did a GREAT job and really showcased their knowledge of energy!

Multiplication

Multiplication

We practiced 2 by 1, 3 by 1, and 4 by 1 multiplication for several days before jumping right in to 2 by 2 multiplication.

To start 2 by 2 multiplication, we practiced the Box Method.

Solve 46 x 25.

Students break apart the numbers into tens and ones and place each group beside the boxes.

Next, multiply the numbers on the outside of each box.

Add the products to find the answer.

Once students understood that each number in the problem needed to be multiplied by each of the other numbers, it helped the standard algorithm make more sense.  

We also practiced creating equations from word problems and solving multiplicative comparison problems.

Example:

Sarah is 3 times as old as Jackson.

Jackson is twice as old as Cooper.

Cooper is 2 years old.

How old is Jackson?

How old is Cooper?