Everyone in the school is working on our coding and robotics unit. The Prep-Grade 2 students have been pretending to be robots and practising giving instruction to each other to follow. The Grade 3-6 students have been using out Lego Robots. They connect to the robots using their iPads. The Grade 3/4 students use a visual programming langue, while the Grade 5/6 students have a programming language that is very similar to Scratch, using blocks with words on them.
0 Comments
The Grade 5 and 6 students have spent the last few weeks thinking about the forces acting on a falling object and what can be done to mitigate them. Their task was to create some sort of safety capsule to protect their group's tomato from a 4 metre drop onto concrete. They were only allowed to use materials that would otherwise be going into a landfill or mixed recycling bin. There were a variety of designs, some bigger than others. There was a 30x30x30cm size restriction in place and a limit of one parachute if they chose to use one. All students did a fantastic drop with 25 out of 25 tomatoes surviving the fall. A few of the tomatoes did experience some trauma, as evidenced by their slightly split skin but overall a fantastic job! (And the slow-cooked bolognese sauce that Miss Augello made that weekend was just heaven!) Grade 1 and 2 have been thinking about the forces acting on different forms of transport. They spent a couple of weeks thinking about the physics of boats and why they float even if they are so heavy. Of course, this meant that we had no choice but to engage in some water play and sort out the issue for ourselves using cups, bowls, pebbles, aluminium foil... A good time was had by all, even if we did have to clean up some puddles when we were done. The G1 and G2 students have been looking at how factors such as weight and size change how far a ball rolls down a ramp. So far they have discovered that most important factor is the weight - heavier balls roll further. The Grade 3 and 4 students have been thinking about forces. They have talked about several different kinds - push, pull, gravity, electrostatic, magnetic, buoyancy and friction - and have been playing around with them in the classroom. Congratulations to Olivia, Anjali, Austin, Sebby and Lucas for building a phenomenal bridge! Made from icy pole sticks and glue, they constructed a bridge that held an incredible amount of weight. It definitely held 9kg and since they had far exceeded Miss Augello's expectations, she wasn't prepared at all with heavier weights to test their bridge. After some improvising with a 20kg bag of sand from the storeroom, we think the bridge would have held about 15kg since it did start to break slightly when we swapped the 9kg for the 20kg bag.
Some students decide to come to STEM Club on Monday lunchtimes for some engineering challenges. The most recent challenge was to build the tallest tower. Students worked together using as much newspaper as they wanted but they only had a limited amount of masking tape to work with. After learning about the properties of water early in the term, and then comparing fresh water with salty water later in the term, Grade 5/6 were presented with a hypothetical: Imagine you have been in a terrible plane crash and are now stranded on a small tropical island. How could you separate the salt out of the ocean water so that you won't die of thirst before the rescue plane arrives? You may only use items that would be found on your little beach or in the wreckage of the plane. The student quickly worked out that the best way would be to use heat to force the water to evaporate, leaving the salt behind. They showed some excellent problem solving skills and critical thinking to find ways to trap the steam and collect the fresh water as the steam condensed back into liquid water. Grade 1 and 2 students are currently trying to work out what the best material is to use to make a fork. They are looking at metal forks, reusable melamine plastics ones and disposable wooden ones. They are testing for strength, pointiness, smoothness, eco-friendliness and cost. The Preps have been tasked with finding the best kind of shopping bag. They were presented with four bags: 1. A thin disposable plastic bag (the kind you buy at the supermarket if you forgot to bing you other ones) 2. A thicker, reusable plastic bag (the kind that folds up neatly in the little bag for storage) 3. A hessian/canvas bag 4. A paper bag (similar to a gift bag) They decided that a good shopping bag needs to be strong, tough and big. Miss Augello suggested that cost and eco-friendliness was also important considerations. Over the next few weeks, the Prep students will be conducting their own tests and observations to give each bag a score for each category. The bag with the most points at the end will be deemed the Best Shopping Bag. |
TeacherAlex Augello Archives
February 2022
Categories
All
|