These claymation stop motion videos were prepared by first
grade students in Mrs. Lister's class to share their understanding of
the life cycle of plants. As a collaborative group, students designed
and created backgrounds and then decided what type of plant to grow.
Next students used iPads to photograph the step by step life cycle of
their plant using clay. Once each step was photographed, students
imported the pictures into iMovie and created a short film. Next they
added their voices to describe the plant life cycle!
In first grade, one essential question we would like every student to answer is:
How Does an Organism Change Throughout Its Life Cycle?
The
videos support the concrete learning about this idea through a variety
of modes from kinesthetic learning (the molding of the clay), verbal
learning (describing and recording the steps the plant goes through),
collaborative learning (each student worked in a group and all decisions
and work was agreed upon by their teams) , creativity and choice
(students selected the plant they would study, and how they would
represent their plant for the video) and technology (iPads application
iMovie).
Students were able to complete these tasks
with very little adult support and I think the results are very
impressive for a group of first graders just learning to use these new
technology tools! Please leave a comment to tell us what you think!
Have they successfully reported on how their plant organism changes? I
think so!
The Sunflower
Petunia Plant
Red-Eyed Susan
The Pea Plant
The Pepper Plant
Enrichment at RES
Thursday, January 29, 2015
The Life Cycle of a Plant Claymation Videos-Part 2 Mrs. Hackett's Class
These claymation stop motion videos were prepared by first
grade students in Mrs. Hackett's class to share their understanding of
the life cycle of plants. As a collaborative group, students designed
and created backgrounds and then decided what type of plant to grow.
Next students used iPads to photograph the step by step life cycle of
their plant using clay. Once each step was photographed, students
imported the pictures into iMovie and created a short film. Next they
added their voices to describe the plant life cycle!
In first grade, one essential question we would like every student to answer is:
How Does an Organism Change Throughout Its Life Cycle?
The videos support the concrete learning about this idea through a variety of modes from kinesthetic learning (the molding of the clay), verbal learning (describing and recording the steps the plant goes through), collaborative learning (each student worked in a group and all decisions and work was agreed upon by their teams) , creativity and choice (students selected the plant they would study, and how they would represent their plant for the video) and technology (iPads application iMovie).
Students were able to complete these tasks with very little adult support and I think the results are very impressive for a group of first graders just learning to use these new technology tools! Please leave a comment to tell us what you think! Have they successfully reported on how their plant organism changes? I think so!
The Story of the Sunflower
The Sunflower
A Pepper Plant
The Poisonous Parsnip
The Story of the Tomato Plant
In first grade, one essential question we would like every student to answer is:
How Does an Organism Change Throughout Its Life Cycle?
The videos support the concrete learning about this idea through a variety of modes from kinesthetic learning (the molding of the clay), verbal learning (describing and recording the steps the plant goes through), collaborative learning (each student worked in a group and all decisions and work was agreed upon by their teams) , creativity and choice (students selected the plant they would study, and how they would represent their plant for the video) and technology (iPads application iMovie).
Students were able to complete these tasks with very little adult support and I think the results are very impressive for a group of first graders just learning to use these new technology tools! Please leave a comment to tell us what you think! Have they successfully reported on how their plant organism changes? I think so!
The Story of the Sunflower
The Sunflower
A Pepper Plant
The Poisonous Parsnip
The Story of the Tomato Plant
The Life Cycle of a Plant Claymation Videos-- Part 1 Ms. Purvee's Class
These claymation stop motion videos were prepared by first grade students in Ms. Purvee's class to share their understanding of the life cycle of plants. As a collaborative group, students designed and created backgrounds and then decided what type of plant to grow. Next students used iPads to photograph the step by step life cycle of their plant using clay. Once each step was photographed, students imported the pictures into iMovie and created a short film. Next they added their voices to describe the plant life cycle!
In first grade, one essential question we would like every student to answer is:
How Does an Organism Change Throughout Its Life Cycle?
The videos support the concrete learning about this idea through a variety of modes from kinesthetic learning (the molding of the clay), verbal learning (describing and recording the steps the plant goes through), collaborative learning (each student worked in a group and all decisions and work was agreed upon by their teams) , creativity and choice (students selected the plant they would study, and how they would represent their plant for the video) and technology (iPads application iMovie).
Students were able to complete these tasks with very little adult support and I think the results are very impressive for a group of first graders just learning to use these new technology tools! Please leave a comment to tell us what you think! Have they successfully reported on how their plant organism changes? I think so!
The Story of the Rose
The Sunflower
The Peach Tree
The Story of A Tomato Plant
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Authentic Student Inquiry
In a previous blog post about our third grade enrichment study of static electricity, I shared a list of questions and ideas that students generated based on their experimentation (See the class description and info here: http://enrichmentatres.blogspot.com/2015/01/static-electricity-hair-raising.html ). This week I received a response from an ESD engineer at IBM. It is so exciting to share how student's thinking and learning connects to the real world and this interaction will be a great example of how applying your learning is important! I feel so grateful to live in a community where professionals are willing to spend time supporting student inquiry.
Here is the IBM engineer's response to our inquiry about static electricity:
Hello Mrs. Rankin's third grade class,
Thank you for your note and the information you have come up with, I'm personally very passionate about this topic of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) since I've done lots of research, published lots of papers and lead a team at IBM on this topic. I'll comment on your list below which I think is a very good list, nice job class!!!
1) Wear special clothes
**Hats
**Gloves
**Do not wear fleece (maybe leather? We are not sure what material would work best)
---> IBM: We have all areas that will come in direct contact with computer chips once they are packaged handle them with wrist straps on, dissipative coats, dissipative shoes, we even have floors which are dissipative including making sure the wax used to clean the floors is dissipative. We don't do anything special with hats or gloves specifically for ESD because we have wrist straps and/or floor shoes which dissipate any charge out of the body and the jackets help minimize the body getting charged up in the first place.
*Make your chips bigger so the wires will not be as small ---> IBM: Ideally this is an excellent idea but unfortunately with computer chips trying to pack more stuff inside them and the number of pins a computer chip has increasing the wires are actually shrinking over time. Thus the way we have to deal with this is instead of using one wiring level we have to use many wiring levels connected on top of each other to get the volume of metal in the wires we need.
*Cover the wires on your chips with something that keeps the static away from the wires --> IBM: The static is typically stored in either a person, machine or inside the computer chip itself. So cover the wires with something that keeps the static away from wires won't typically help. However, you have a good idea in general, if you cover the wires with materials that help keep them cooler rather than having them heat up so much (thermally dissipative material) then that will help. Great idea!!!
*Have back up wires on your chips -->
IBM: We essentially have parallel wires, not backup ones so the idea is a good one. Thus the way we have to deal with this is instead of using one wiring level we have to use many wiring levels connected on top of each other to get the volume of metal in the wires we need.
*Do not have carpets in your lab (We think tile or wood might be better)
--> IBM: Typically we use tile floors that are dissipative. However, we do have part of our lab with carpet but it is very special ESD carpet that has wires running through it that get connected to earth ground to dissipate the charge.
*Do not touch chips, but use tweezers or robots
--> IBM: Great idea and yes we make anyone even using tweezers to wear dissipative jacket and have wrist strap on and have dissipative shoes. Robots and tweezers typically have dissipative materials on the "fingers" that grab the computer chips so the computer chips don't get charged up.
*Only make chips when it is the right weather (we get lots more static shocks in the winter)
--> IBM: Yes, ESD is very sensitive to humidity and when relative humidity in the winter is very low we get more static charge which we have to find ways to deal with. Ideally we would only make things in the summer but unfortunately for our business we have to operate year round so we find ways to deal with extra static electricity in the winter which is by using things like ionizers which "balance or uncharge" objects and we will use very good wrist straps, dissipative jackets and dissipative footwear and floors.
*Put your chips in special packages
--> IBM: When the chips are made they are put in antistatic bags and trays to ensure they don't get charged up during transportation. So yes we do this all the time, excellent thought by the class!!!
We are wondering if you do any of these things already? We were also wondering if there were things we missed that you doing your lab ?
--> IBM: Great set of questions, in addition to controlling static charge as listed in the above answers. We also do ESD testing with ESD testers to see how robust the chips we build are against ESD events. ESD events are mainly (3) kinds, ones which come from humans known has "Human Body Model (HBM) discharge" , ones which come from machines "Machine Model (MM) discharge" and ones which come from the chip itself being triboelectrically charges (aka frictional/rubbing two materials together charge) know as charge device model (CDM).
Here is the IBM engineer's response to our inquiry about static electricity:
Hello Mrs. Rankin's third grade class,
Thank you for your note and the information you have come up with, I'm personally very passionate about this topic of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) since I've done lots of research, published lots of papers and lead a team at IBM on this topic. I'll comment on your list below which I think is a very good list, nice job class!!!
1) Wear special clothes
**Hats
**Gloves
**Do not wear fleece (maybe leather? We are not sure what material would work best)
---> IBM: We have all areas that will come in direct contact with computer chips once they are packaged handle them with wrist straps on, dissipative coats, dissipative shoes, we even have floors which are dissipative including making sure the wax used to clean the floors is dissipative. We don't do anything special with hats or gloves specifically for ESD because we have wrist straps and/or floor shoes which dissipate any charge out of the body and the jackets help minimize the body getting charged up in the first place.
*Make your chips bigger so the wires will not be as small ---> IBM: Ideally this is an excellent idea but unfortunately with computer chips trying to pack more stuff inside them and the number of pins a computer chip has increasing the wires are actually shrinking over time. Thus the way we have to deal with this is instead of using one wiring level we have to use many wiring levels connected on top of each other to get the volume of metal in the wires we need.
*Cover the wires on your chips with something that keeps the static away from the wires --> IBM: The static is typically stored in either a person, machine or inside the computer chip itself. So cover the wires with something that keeps the static away from wires won't typically help. However, you have a good idea in general, if you cover the wires with materials that help keep them cooler rather than having them heat up so much (thermally dissipative material) then that will help. Great idea!!!
*Have back up wires on your chips -->
IBM: We essentially have parallel wires, not backup ones so the idea is a good one. Thus the way we have to deal with this is instead of using one wiring level we have to use many wiring levels connected on top of each other to get the volume of metal in the wires we need.
*Do not have carpets in your lab (We think tile or wood might be better)
--> IBM: Typically we use tile floors that are dissipative. However, we do have part of our lab with carpet but it is very special ESD carpet that has wires running through it that get connected to earth ground to dissipate the charge.
*Do not touch chips, but use tweezers or robots
--> IBM: Great idea and yes we make anyone even using tweezers to wear dissipative jacket and have wrist strap on and have dissipative shoes. Robots and tweezers typically have dissipative materials on the "fingers" that grab the computer chips so the computer chips don't get charged up.
*Only make chips when it is the right weather (we get lots more static shocks in the winter)
--> IBM: Yes, ESD is very sensitive to humidity and when relative humidity in the winter is very low we get more static charge which we have to find ways to deal with. Ideally we would only make things in the summer but unfortunately for our business we have to operate year round so we find ways to deal with extra static electricity in the winter which is by using things like ionizers which "balance or uncharge" objects and we will use very good wrist straps, dissipative jackets and dissipative footwear and floors.
*Put your chips in special packages
--> IBM: When the chips are made they are put in antistatic bags and trays to ensure they don't get charged up during transportation. So yes we do this all the time, excellent thought by the class!!!
We are wondering if you do any of these things already? We were also wondering if there were things we missed that you doing your lab ?
--> IBM: Great set of questions, in addition to controlling static charge as listed in the above answers. We also do ESD testing with ESD testers to see how robust the chips we build are against ESD events. ESD events are mainly (3) kinds, ones which come from humans known has "Human Body Model (HBM) discharge" , ones which come from machines "Machine Model (MM) discharge" and ones which come from the chip itself being triboelectrically charges (aka frictional/rubbing two materials together charge) know as charge device model (CDM).
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Claymation Videos Taking Shape
Students in first grade have been working hard to put the finishing touches on our claymation videos about the life cycle of a plant. This week we were lucky to have CESU Technology Integrationist, Mr. Langevin support students as they recorded their audio!
We hope to have our videos polished and ready to share on this blog next week, but below is a sneak peak of one group who wrapped up this week as well as some great pictures of students collaborating during recording and creating!
We hope to have our videos polished and ready to share on this blog next week, but below is a sneak peak of one group who wrapped up this week as well as some great pictures of students collaborating during recording and creating!
RES Science Fair--Save the Date!
 |
| Image from: http://milestonescommunityschool.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/hug-club-clip-art-741.jpg |
The
RES Enrichment Program is excited to announce the annual
FAMILY SCIENCE FAIR !COMING SOON!
Thursday
March 12th, 2015
We look forward to the excellent projects
presented by students in grades K-4!
Please mark your calendars and start thinking about how you would like
to participate.
Do you
have a science fair project in mind?
Here are some ways to make a plan:
* Expand
upon an interesting topic you have studied in class
* Think
about a topic that interests you, or a science question that you are curious
about
* Talk
to family and friends to brainstorm ideas for a project
* Stop
by the enrichment room and borrow a fair idea book and talk with Mrs. Rankin
* Check
out science project resources in the library
* Look
at our RES blog post about the 2014 science fair to get ideas and be inspired by all the great work from last year: http://resvt.blogspot.com/2014/03/resvt-annual-family-science-fair-vted.html
The RES
Science Fair is a non-judged family event.
Students are encouraged to work together with family and friends to
develop a project they are proud of presenting to our community. Your entry does not have to be a science experiment.
It may be as simple as a display of your leaf collection or as complex as an
experiment on how the circulatory system works.
Look at the world around you. What are you curious about? What interests
you? Ask why something is the way it is.
Do experiments, demonstrate a scientific principle, make observations of the
world around you, or collect and analyze data.
Most importantly- be creative and HAVE FUN!
In a few
weeks Science Fair entry forms will be sent home. At that time you will be asked to share your
planned science fair topic as well as any special display requirements you
have.
CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!
Mr. Berry and
Mrs. Rankin have agreed to allow one student to pie them in the face, IF we reach over 100 student
participants in the 2015 fair! We can do it!!!
Questions?
Contact: Darcie Rankin, Enrichment Teacher by
email at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org
Squishy Circuits
In third grade enrichment we continued our investigation of electricity this week with the use of Squishy Circuits. Squishy Circuits utilize the concept that if you make playdoh with a high enough salt content you can create a conductive dough that can be used to build circuits! The opportunity for students to physically build circuits and see how their manipulation of the materials turns on LEDs, or makes a buzzer sound, or drives a motor leads to high engagement and enthusiasm as well as a great understanding of the concept of electrical circuits!
Students cheer (I am not exaggerating!) when their first LED lights up....and then they just keep problem solving and creating. Students figured out how to make physical switches from playdoh and other materials. Students worked in partnerships to brainstorm and create. Beyond these partnerships though, I watched as students leaned across tables to give another partnership a hint, or challenge them to build something similar to their design. As a teacher I am thrilled to have the experience of sharing in their learning. One table or another is constantly calling me over to celebrate their successes or problem solve.
We were very lucky to have Vermont State Science Fair Coordinator Tricia Finkle visit our class for one day of our exploration and provide support and materials! Some materials for this exploration were obtained through our VASE equipment grant (read more about this grant here: http://enrichmentatres.blogspot.com/2015/01/res-awarded-vase-grant-expanding.html) This grant support has made it so that each partner had a set of materials to manipulate in a whole class setting AND we have sets of materials for each classroom electricity maker space. We are also grateful to all of the third grade families that provided our conductive dough!
To learn more about Squishy Circuits, you can check out the following website:
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/index.htm
Or watch this great introductory video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/
Students cheer (I am not exaggerating!) when their first LED lights up....and then they just keep problem solving and creating. Students figured out how to make physical switches from playdoh and other materials. Students worked in partnerships to brainstorm and create. Beyond these partnerships though, I watched as students leaned across tables to give another partnership a hint, or challenge them to build something similar to their design. As a teacher I am thrilled to have the experience of sharing in their learning. One table or another is constantly calling me over to celebrate their successes or problem solve.
We were very lucky to have Vermont State Science Fair Coordinator Tricia Finkle visit our class for one day of our exploration and provide support and materials! Some materials for this exploration were obtained through our VASE equipment grant (read more about this grant here: http://enrichmentatres.blogspot.com/2015/01/res-awarded-vase-grant-expanding.html) This grant support has made it so that each partner had a set of materials to manipulate in a whole class setting AND we have sets of materials for each classroom electricity maker space. We are also grateful to all of the third grade families that provided our conductive dough!
To learn more about Squishy Circuits, you can check out the following website:
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/index.htm
Or watch this great introductory video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/
RES Awarded the VASE Grant--Expanding Exploratory Science at RES
In November of 2014 Ms Tonya Darby, third grade teacher and Mrs. Darcie Rankin, enrichment teacher, and Richmond Elementary School (RES) students were awarded a Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering (VASE) small equipment grant. The purpose of this grant was to increase student interest in science and engineering by providing opportunities for direct hands- on experiences (information about the grant can be found here: http://www.uvm.edu/~vase/?Page=teacher/grants.html&SM=teacher/_teachermenu.html ). Ms Darby and Mrs. Rankin collaborated to develop a set of inquiry activities that would extend and enrich the current third grade electricity unit at RES, as well as provide materials for engineering projects in other grades.
In January we kicked off our third grade study of electricity. In each third grade classroom and the enrichment classroom, there will be an electricity inquiry space in which students will have many opportunities to explore electricity, make observations, and design student led inquiry investigations, using the new materials we received with the VASE grant. We are very grateful for the opportunity that this grant has given us to expand exploratory learning at RES.
Check back on this blog as our classrooms buzz with the excitement of these new materials and the great learning that will follow their use!
Narwhals, Dolphins and Space..Oh My!
Kindergarten students continue to share their interests during enrichment class exploratory time. This week we had students present centers on Narwhals, Dolphins and Space. Each center was designed by students and led to great learning and discussions. At the beginning of each enrichment class I invite a student to stand up and share their interests with the class. The student takes questions and then opens up a center that other students can visit during exploratory play. During our Narwhal discussion we watched a video and we learned that these mysterious animals of the sea have tusks that can grow to ten feet long! At the student center there were opportunities to play on a giant map with sea creatures, read books and color Narwhal pictures. Each center is different, as the student has decided what will happen when classmates visit. At our dolphin center students could create dolphin art, make dolphin clay cut outs, read books, or watch dolphin movies.
We were also lucky this week that one of our kindergarten interests connected to a fourth grade unit of study on space. We invited a fourth grader to share some 'wow' space facts before we created our own space play area.
I am always impressed during this sharing time how respectful students are of their student center leaders AND how much students know about the topics they select!
And this is only the first full week of student led centers---we have so many more great topics to come!
We were also lucky this week that one of our kindergarten interests connected to a fourth grade unit of study on space. We invited a fourth grader to share some 'wow' space facts before we created our own space play area.
I am always impressed during this sharing time how respectful students are of their student center leaders AND how much students know about the topics they select!
And this is only the first full week of student led centers---we have so many more great topics to come!
Static Electricity--A Hair Raising Experience!
In third grade enrichment last week students had the opportunity to explore static electricity. We began our discussion by thinking about matter, atoms and electrons. Once we understood that electrons sometimes want to jump from atom to atom....it was time to explore materials and witness this phenomenon for themselves! Students were given a balloon, some salt on a plate, a fleece square of material, tissue paper and a comb.
Once students had an opportunity to explore materials and understand static electricity (by generating it as well as experiencing it first hand), we met as a group to talk about why static electricity was important. Besides being a great introduction into the electricity unit--static electricity is something engineers have to understand for the manufacture of computer chips. We looked at some sample computer chips and their packaging, and then I asked the question: How would engineers at a factory like IBM protect their chips from static electricity?
Below is the note I wrote from our responses. I have sent this to an IBM ESD (Electro Static Discharge) Engineer, and we await his reply!
Dear IBM Engineer--
We are third graders at Richmond Elementary School and we are beginning our study of electricity. Today we had an exploratory lesson on static electricity. Our teacher, Mrs. Rankin shared with us that static electricity can be a problem with computer chip manufacturing (since you have such small wires on your chips). We came up with some ideas of what you might do to avoid static electricity at your factory.
Here is our list:
*Wear special clothes
**Hats
**Gloves
**Do not wear fleece (maybe leather? We are not sure what material would work best)
*Make your chips bigger so the wires will not be as small
*Cover the wires on your chips with something that keeps the static away from the wires
*Have back up wires on your chips
*Do not have carpets in your lab (We think tile or wood might be better)
*Do not touch chips, but use tweezers or robots
*Only make chips when it is the right weather (we get lots more static shocks in the winter)
*Put your chips in special packages
We are wondering if you do any of these things already? We were also wondering if there were things we missed that you doing your lab ?
Thanks for helping us to connect real life problems to our studies!
RES Third Graders
Once students had an opportunity to explore materials and understand static electricity (by generating it as well as experiencing it first hand), we met as a group to talk about why static electricity was important. Besides being a great introduction into the electricity unit--static electricity is something engineers have to understand for the manufacture of computer chips. We looked at some sample computer chips and their packaging, and then I asked the question: How would engineers at a factory like IBM protect their chips from static electricity?
Below is the note I wrote from our responses. I have sent this to an IBM ESD (Electro Static Discharge) Engineer, and we await his reply!
Dear IBM Engineer--
We are third graders at Richmond Elementary School and we are beginning our study of electricity. Today we had an exploratory lesson on static electricity. Our teacher, Mrs. Rankin shared with us that static electricity can be a problem with computer chip manufacturing (since you have such small wires on your chips). We came up with some ideas of what you might do to avoid static electricity at your factory.
Here is our list:
*Wear special clothes
**Hats
**Gloves
**Do not wear fleece (maybe leather? We are not sure what material would work best)
*Make your chips bigger so the wires will not be as small
*Cover the wires on your chips with something that keeps the static away from the wires
*Have back up wires on your chips
*Do not have carpets in your lab (We think tile or wood might be better)
*Do not touch chips, but use tweezers or robots
*Only make chips when it is the right weather (we get lots more static shocks in the winter)
*Put your chips in special packages
We are wondering if you do any of these things already? We were also wondering if there were things we missed that you doing your lab ?
Thanks for helping us to connect real life problems to our studies!
RES Third Graders
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Kindergarten Interests Drive Enrichment Learning
In kindergarten enrichment students are beginning the year by sharing their student, interest-driven, exploratory centers. Before the end of the year, each student in kindergarten will select a topic of their choice and then work with me to figure out how to share their interests with their class during our exploratory play. On Monday we had our first student created center about snowflakes. After sharing her interest in snowflakes with the class, she taught many students how to make their own paper snowflakes! At the end of enrichment the whole class cheered for her idea and the way she taught and helped others at her center!
In the coming weeks we have projects scheduled about Norwals, castles, shadow puppetry, ballet, singing, pop up bookmaking and so much more! Each week in kindergarten classes we will highlight a student passion and share our interests as we learn with each other!
Visitors are always welcome in the enrichment classroom. Whether you would like to visit when your student shares their center, come and share your own interests in a center, or just explore and learn with us--please email me at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org!
In the coming weeks we have projects scheduled about Norwals, castles, shadow puppetry, ballet, singing, pop up bookmaking and so much more! Each week in kindergarten classes we will highlight a student passion and share our interests as we learn with each other!
Visitors are always welcome in the enrichment classroom. Whether you would like to visit when your student shares their center, come and share your own interests in a center, or just explore and learn with us--please email me at darcie.rankin@cesuvt.org!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)