Stimulating Science Simulations

The 4th grade students were asked to choose a structure and conduct research about it.  They wrote about their selected structure and were grouped together based on their selections.  Then began the fun.  Replicating the structure together. I wish I had thought of this but the credit goes to classroom teachers at New Century International Elementary.  Check out the final products.

Today students partnered up to work on communication and engineering design skills during a challenge that required one student to give verbal directions to the other in order to replicate a model made from K'Nex.  The partners really rose to this challenge and by the end they were asking each other questions for clarification and being very specific in their directions which resulted in successful rebuilds. We also finished the timeline that was started yesterday and played some more Smartboard games. The morning goes by so quickly!

Today was the first day of summer camp for my students.  This year I am offering 3 weeks for students who were in my homeroom.  I limited it to that group because I am looping up to 5th grade with them and want to offer extra support as we prepare to tackle another year. Each day will be a little different from the others, but there will always be a bit of every subject woven throughout the morning.  For instance, today we began with a team work engineering challenge.  The 5 students who attended camp today worked together to try to build a house of cards.  They found this to be a bit trickier than they had expected.  After many attempts, they were able to figure out a few ways that would work for awhile but none of the housed stayed standing for long.  We'll try this again and see if they get better with practice. Our 2nd challenge today was a red solo cup challenge.  I found this idea on Pinterest and was really pleased with they way that th...

NC Science Essential Standard 4.E.2.3  Give examples of how the surface of the earth changes due to slow processes such as erosion and weathering, and rapid processes such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. Open any science book and you'll find plenty of ideas for modeling erosion and weathering.  One of my favorite things to do is take students outside after a heavy rain and look for signs of erosion, weathering, and deposition. But, none of this makes the STEM and career connections I want to afford my students.     I specifically wanted to stay away from the typical, "let's make a volcano" that isn't really a volcano but more of a chemical reaction (vinegar/baking soda) experiment.  So I went looking for something specifically geared toward an interactive simulation of an earthquake. I found just what I was looking for (and then some) at Teach Engineering . I have a feeling I will be referencing this website a LOT!  They have ton...