High Altitude Balloon Launch! |
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High Altitude Balloon Preparation
Well, to say we aim high at WJES is an understatement! Recently, one of our very own West Jackson parents initiated a project to launch a high altitude balloon into space. Students throughout the school participated in several STEM activities to spark their imaginations and sense of wonder before our scheduled launch event. In the STEM lab, K-2 students explored wind, force, and motion through kites. Students in grades 3-5 engineered parachutes and attempted to defy the force of gravity on an egg being dropped from a 2nd-story window.
In Genius Gym, 4th grade students explored flight and 5th grade students explored the challenges and potential dangers of space travel including: air pressure, temperature, mobility, communication, oxygen deprivation, injury, and more. Students collaboratively researched these issues and then designed spacesuits that addressed the issues. Check out the pictures of our process! |
Maneuvering Mars - Parent Day
Recently, 5th grade Genius Gym students completed several activities from a unit that I put together called, "The Amazing Race: Mars". Students participated in several STEM "road block" tasks as a part of their journey.
As a final culminating activity parents were invited to join us for our last "road block" which involved programming robots to perform several maneuvering tasks on the surface of Mars. The students became the NASA experts and the parents were their trainees. It was an amazing thing to see how students were able to transfer their knowledge in this role reversal! Check out this short video. What a successful event! |
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PREVIOUS MISSIONS
Captain's Log: Space on the Brain
This week, I spent time at our state's Gifted Educator's Conference. As I usually do, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to promote the growth of gifted and high-achievers in our building. This year, however, I found myself looking for opportunities to enrich through space science.
One of my thought processes looked like this: I was overlooking a table of economics materials. You know what I mean: brochures, shredded dollar bills in baggies, bookmarks, curriculum catalogs, etc... I'm standing there and I think economy, economic development, economic system... How can I connect economics to space science? *Why not have students take their knowledge about the history of how our monetary and economic system developed to plan and create an economic system for a martian colony? How would it be similar? What would need to be different because of the challenges? Would colonists use "money" as we know it? Would there be a tax system? *What about the whole concept of space program funding? Who is funding space exploration today? What are the pros/cons? How could you persuade investors or the government that funding space exploration is important? Just thoughts about ways to connect subject areas that one might not initially believe are related... Stay tuned! |
AND THEN THERE'S THIS...
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1st and 2nd grade Gifted Resource
Students have been focusing on fables, analyzing them for common story elements. This week we finished researching the planet Mars. Why would fables and Mars be a focus of learning at the same time? Well, because students have been given a challenge to self-select a "moral" and write an original fable using Mars as the setting! This week students were grouped based on their moral of interest and began brainstorming. Students spent time developing their characters. The imaginative ideas are amazing... oh, AND their ability to incorporate facts about Mars from their research into the early stages of their planning is pretty cool, too. These fables will be told through stop-motion animation as a final product. Stay tuned...! For now, check out these photos of our process so far. And, click on the link to hear a "teaser" from a writer or two. |
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3rd Grade Enrichment
Third grade Friday Enrichment students are beginning to plan and design a garden. Students are responsible for researching plants for either their self-selected vegetable or flower garden plot. Students will use graph paper to plan and design and then will be required to create a life-sized garden on a grid measuring 1 square yard. This week, we used some of my SEEC "swag" to assist us in learning about coordinates. I am considering adding an element that would include the challenge of growing plants on Mars... |
The Head Genius, at SEEC
SEEC 2017 was one of the greatest conferences I have ever attended. I can't wait to return in 2018. Here are just a few pictures for you to enjoy. |
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