Fun with Robots

The students have been enjoying exploring the world of robotics with the Roamers. Kindergarten through Second Grade students have been using the number line mats on the floors to solve some word problems. While the Third through Fifth Grade students have designed mazes for the Roamers to go through and used LEGO blocks as visual guides on the floor for the path the Roamer must follow in their mazes.

Each of the students have had to write their own programs for the robots before they can actually program the robots. The younger students have gotten so used to writing across a page that they are having to rethink their writing when they write their programs and are having to work more linear -vertically down the page, in a list.

Fifth Grade students have had an added challenge of having to program their Roamers to go in a figure-8 on the floor using plastic bins for the Roamers to move around. This is proving to be a bit of a challenge for them. I've suggested that they walk the figure-8 while saying the directions they are moving in out loud. Sometimes it helps our thinking when we are saying our directions verbally.

Some of the Fifth Grade students have also been enjoying the world of LEGO robotics with the We Do's. They love playing with the sounds while they are animating their robots. The bobbing duck twins and the alligator seems to be among the favorite designs for the students to build. The program on the computer that the students are using to actually program the robots seems to be easy enough for the students to use. Its similar to the LEGO Mind Storms application, but not as many loops and rotations they have to put in there.

I wish we were able to have a few sets to keep here at the school so that we were able to explore with them more. But just like I keep trying to teach my students how to share, so I must also learn to share with others. We will have to pack up these Roamers, and the We Do's (Legos) and send them to another school for them to use and enjoy in a few weeks.

We are surrounded by letters everywhere we look - Can you see them?

The third through fifth graders are beginning on a project that will take them through the next several week exploring urban environments for alphabetic letters through the eyes of photographer Abba Richman. I found a poster earlier in the summer with a composite of Richman's Alphabet photography in black and white and thought it would be a great start into our year with one of our main focuses being Structures. (You can see the poster that inspired this lesson and get a closer look at each of the letters of the alphabet, plus view a set of letters in color by going to PBase.com, a photo sharing site on the Net. If you click on the PBase link above, it will take you directly to Abba Richman's poster. Click on The Alphabet in the bread crumbs at the top of his page to go back and view the rest of the alphabet photos.)

As an amateur/hobbyist photographer, I'm fascinated by the abstract, especially in black and white. I love looking at through the view finder at a 'big picture' in the world around me and seeing what sort of a snapshot of that bigger picture I can capture, bringing the details into closer view. This is what the students will be creating, only without an actual camera.

We will be taking a look at Mr. Richman's photos and discussing all of the different materials that are in the photos, then mentally exploring our school to find alphabet pictures of our own. Then, while working in teams, we will be using different materials, like aluminum foil, wood pieces, felt, sand paper, craft foam, and plastic, to create a letter of the alphabet that mimics Richman's Alphabet photography. While we are exploring the different materials through team work, each student in the team will be responsible for their own material. The students will have to work together and communicate (just like engineers do) on how and where the materials are going to be in their picture.

Meanwhile, the Kindergarten through Second Grade students will be using the Engineering Design Process to create a cleaning machine like Dr. Seuss's 'The Cat in the Hat' had.

A new look for a new year

I'm very excited about the coming 2012-2013 school year! This is Braden River Elementary's second year of having Engineering as a Fine Arts class. We had an awesome first year learning about engineering, simple machines, and transportation. This next year is going to be even more exciting - this year we have R-O-B-O-T-S!!! (I can't wait to share them with you!)

You may have noticed I changed the skin on the blog to include more colors. I think this is a more kid friendly theme and goes well with the Inspiring Elementary Engineering logo that our school district had done for us last year.

Well, I've already told you about one of the cool units we are going to be doing in my class this year, Robots, or Robotics - more correctly, where we will be taking a look at some of NASA's robots and Mars Rovers, along with trying our hand at making some robotic hands, making robots out of recycled materials, building robots from LEGO bricks, and, oh yeah, having some fun on the floor with some robots called "Roamers".

We will also be spending some time in water transportation, building some boats and having some water fun with them as well. (What would an "Under the Sea" theme be like without some water fun in class?!) And then spending the second half of the year on Construction and Structures. There is so much in this unit, I could spend a whole year on it, but then, that might be a bit much. However, we will be taking a look at 3D shapes, bridges, dams, towers, skyscrapers, walls, tunnels, and more stationary creations. Last year, our 5th grade TSA students had the opportunity to work with an engineer and build some balsa wood truss bridges. I hope to be able to do that again this year, and actually go to the Balsa Wood Bridge contest at USF in Tampa during Engineers Week in February!

This is going to be an exciting! I can't wait to get started! Looking forward to seeing all of you on Monday, August 20th, where we will be "Learning Under The Sea!"

When objects collide kinetic energy perpetuates

We are putting our knowledge of simple machines, force, motion, and kinetic energy to the test as we wrap up our Simple Machines unit through the designing of Rube Goldberg machines. The students are working in small groups brainstorming and blueprinting machines that do not run off of electricity but rather simple machines that perform a simple task like turning on a light switch, making a blended smoothie, or getting a glass of ice water.

Inspired by a few Rube Goldberg machine videos (like the Honda Accord Rube Goldberg Machine commercial), some curious students have been researching other Rube Goldberg videos on their own time and then excitedly sharing what they have found during their next visit to STEM class. For other students, who seemed to have been quiet all year, the Rube Goldberg machine challenge has sparked their creative design interests. These students are suddenly eager to jot down ideas into their STEM journals and share them with others. Quiet students are engaging in lengthy conversations about how the marble rolls down inclined planes, dropping into baskets in pulleys, sending the other baskets on the pulleys up, to knock down dominoes that fall up winding staircases, hitting wedges, and so on.

As a teacher, it is inspiring to watch such quiet students come alive with the "magic" of science, and the possibilities of future machine creations. Every student that comes into the lab has been captivated by this project, from the littlest Kindergarten student to the tallest fifth grader. Everything they have been learning so far about force and motion is suddenly making sense to them. This is "Inspiring Elementary Engineering" at its finest! (As well as "Inspiring Curiosity", one of my favorite mottoes.)

For more information about building Rube Goldberg Machines, check out some of these videos:

• How to Build a Rube Goldberg Machines
• This incredible monster-trapping machine was built by a 7 yr old
• Purdue University Guinness World Record machine

Or click on the video below to view a classroom favorite with the students:

Pulleys transfer the direction of force

This week we are taking a look at another one of the six simple machines, the pulley. This will be a two week investigation on pulleys. Pulleys are useful simple machines because they transfer the direction of force needed to lift an object and can give us a mechanical advantage (depending on the type of pulley that is used). There are different types of pulleys: fixed, moveable, and compound, such as the block and tackle pulley. Fixed pulleys are just that - they are fixed in position and do not move except to have their wheel spin. These are usually found on blinds, curtains, flag poles, wells, and on cranes. Moveable pulleys move with the objects they are lifting or moving, such as zip lines, hoists, elevators, cable cars, and sky rides. Moveable pulleys can give a mechanical advantage because it requires less effort to lift or move an object than with fixed pulleys. Like compound words and machines, compound pulleys are made up of two or more pulleys, or pulleys that use two or more wheels. Compound pulleys like a block and tackle pulley can be found on sailing boats, shipping vessels (like fishing boats), tow trucks, and engine hoists.

The students have been exploring some of the different types of pulleys using wooden models. We have also explored the school and found some pulleys that help us with tasks like pulling the American flag up and down the pole each day, opening and closing the curtains on the stage, and opening and closing the blinds (or drawing the blinds across the window). We watched a video clip from PBS's "Sid the Science Kid"series as Sid learns about a simple machine that can help him move some of his toys up to his newly built tree house. (Next week we will watch the conclusion of the video and see some other ideas and examples of pulleys that Sid and his friends and family come up with.) In our journals, we have been drawing some examples of pulley systems and blueprinting the direction of effort used, and how it is being used to make our lives easier.

The fourth and fifth graders started exploring pulley systems using single, double, and triple pulleys, spring scales, and washers. They have been constructing pulley systems to move large washers and investigating the mechanical advantage they get with each system.

Inclined Planes Help us Move

This week we are taking a closer look at inclined planes and how they help us move. An inclined plane is a flat surface that has been raised at one end, such as a ramp, slope, or slide. Stairs can be considered an inclined plane because they help to move loads gradually rather than straight up or down. There is a trade off, though, in using an inclined plane to help move a load, you are trading force for distance. It will take less force to move an item up a ramp into the back of a truck, for example; however, it will require more distance to go up the ramp rather than a straight upward lift, like from the side walk directly below into the tailgate of a truck.

The primary students have been exploring inclined planes through Legos and building water slides for the balls or Lego people to go down. The students enjoyed working in small groups to design their slides with little direction from me, except what an inclined plane is, and what their slide had to do. (Although, for some, I did have to provide a little additional guidance about connecting the tubes together so they fit in the doorways.)

The intermediate students have been conducting experiments in distance and force using cars and car launchers they made from the Legos. We have been able to tie this lesson in with math, and for some, this is an introduction to the metric system, in using meter sticks to measure the distance the cars are launched. The students also had to construct a data table in their journals to record the varying distances with the launchers, then analyze the data, and discuss their results - both verbally and in writing.

For more information about inclined planes as part of simple machines, check out these sites:

• Inclined Planes - from the Franklin Institute
• Dirtmeister: Inclined Plane 
• Simple Machines for Kids - Inclined Plane 
• How does an inclined plane work? 

Honoring Engineers during Engineers Week

We are taking a break from our Simple Machines unit in honor of Engineers this week to learn more about what they do in celebration of National Engineers Week, Feb. 19th - 25th. As part of our celebration and exploration, we've watched a video entitled "The Sum of All Thrills" found on Discover Engineering's website about a group of three teenagers that visit the Innovations area in the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. These teenagers work with a pair of civil engineers to learn more about the physics and science that goes into designing theme park roller coasters. The teens are introduced to kinetic and potential energy, and then given the challenge of designing a couple of roller coasters, one on a marble track, the other on Epcot's "Sum of All Thrills" computer generated ride.

After seeing a bit of what civil engineers do (or at least those that design roller coasters), the younger students are given a lesson in aerodynamics as they learn a some of what aeronautic engineers do as they explore how balloons react to the air around them. This has lead to quite a few discussions about airplane and fighter jet designs, and streamlining the cone to allow it to effortlessly slice through the air like a wedge. (Some of the simple machines unit coming in.)

Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth graders have been challenged to design the tallest freestanding structure possible in a given time limit using only the supplies they are given in a zip lock baggie (10 index cards, 6 paper clips, 4 small drinking straws) and a foot of masking tape. They were allowed to use scissors to cut the cards as needed (making notches to interlock with each other), but were not allowed to use the scissors to add to their structure (as part of their structure). They could not have the structure taped to the table (thus, freestanding) and were not allowed to get more tape. A few taller structures came down with the wind as the buzzer went off on the timer, to the disappointment of the teams building them. The tallest structure for the week measured 68cm, but included a 30cm antenna made from the drinking straws.

Celebrating National Engineers Week with the students was a great way for them to learn a little more about what engineers do, and the impact engineers have on our everyday lives. Many of the students in our school have close ties to engineers through their parents. To all the engineering parents (relatives and friends, as well), this post is for you. Thank you for all you do to make our world a better place to live in.

The following video was put together with clips from our week and images that celebrate some of the different engineering fields.

Wedges help use separate materials

This week we have been taking a closer look at the wedge. Wedges help us by separating materials, lifting items, or holding things in place. They are made of two inclined planes put together, and are portable inclined planes, whereas inclined planes are stationary. Good examples of wedges are items made of metal that have a blade (like knives, scissors, and an axe) or a point (like a pin or staples). Keys could also be considered as a wedge because the teeth wedge their way into the tumblers inside a lock.

Primary students have been creating paper wedges in class, then separating the two inclined planes on them and driving toy Matchbox cars down the slopes. (Some have enjoyed jumping the cars on the ramps. :) Its been quite a trick working with the students helping them folds and tape all of the tabs on their paper wedges into place. (We've also discovered the metal teeth on the tape dispenser are a good example of a wedge.)

Intermediate students have enjoyed using the K'Nex sets to build a model of a wedge splitting a piece of wood. These models have been helping them understand how the wedge is used to separate the materials in the wood to split it.

Next week, we will be taking a look at inclined planes.

For more information about wedges, visit these sites:

•  Examples of Wedges
• Dirtmeister: Wedge 
• The contribution of the wedge to early civilization
• Simple Machines for Kids: Wedges

Screws versus Bolts

This week we are taking a closer look at one of the six simple machines - the screw. Screws are useful simple machines in that they help us hold things together by applying force through the item or items. They can also take a force that goes around and make it go up and down instead. One of the earliest versions of a screw was invented by Archimedes and used to move water to higher levels in ancient times. Other examples of a screw beyond the kind used to hold materials together are springs, cork screws, and slinkies because they have a spiraling inclined plane wrapped around a central (or imaginary) core. Screws can also be found in nature, especially in shells and shelled animals.

Primary students are comparing screws to bolts using large screws and bolts I found (purchased) at Lowe's, and creating Venn diagrams to help them compare and contrast the two "screws". We have been talking about the ease of installing a screw into a wall because of the wedge on the end whereas a bolt would need to have a hole drilled first. Screws also have their threads (inclined plane) spread wider apart that helps to cut threads into the inside of the hole it is being screwed into; while the threads on a bolt are more standard (to fit nuts on them) and are closer together than on a screw.

The students are able to see how the threads are really one long inclined plane wrapped around and around by taking a paper cut into a right triangle, coloring the angled edge, and then winding it back around itself to make a paper screw.

Fourth and fifth grade students are exploring screws using K'Nex as they construct a hand drill and comparing a drill bit to a screw. They are also learning the mechanical advantages of a screw and how they can calculate the mechanical advantage (MA) by taking length of the spiral and dividing it by the length of the body of the screw (or drill bit, in this case).

For more information on screws as a simple machine, check out these sites:

• Dirtmeister: Screws
• Simple Machines for Kids: Screw
• Examples of Screws
• How is a screw like an inclined plane?

The Search for Simple Machines

This week marks the start of our Simple Machines unit. When we think of machines, quite often we think of some elaborate object with button or knobs that is powered by electricity in some way, either by battery or by a plug in the wall. However, simple machines are the simplest part of a machine, often made of one or very few moving parts. These simple machines make work easier for us by distributing the mass over a gradual slope, lifting items, splitting materials, applying force, or even changing the direction of the force and giving us a mechanical advantage. There are six simple machines: inclined plane, screw, wedge, pulley, wheel and axle, and lever.

As part of getting acquainted with the six simple machines this week, we will be scouring our school looking for and identifying each of the simple machines and talking about how they make tasks easier for us. Students are having to find at least two example of each of the simple machines around our school. (Kindergarten students love going by the flag pole and pointing out the pulley. :) Parents can challenge their students at home to locate examples of the six simple machines at home.

The Science of the Circus

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Kids of all ages, step right up for some circus fun! This week our STEM class is going to the circus, or at least bringing parts of the circus into the classroom. We are taking a look at tightrope walkers, or funambulists, and other balancing acts of the circus and focusing on the physics behind the tricks that wow us from the center ring.

Students will be learning about the center of gravity, momentum, motion, balance, equilibrium, inertia, net force, and torque this week through video clips featuring tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, and other feats of balance, walking a line and a small balance beam, and making clowns balance on their fingers (paper clowns, that is). The balancing artist and acrobats featured in the videos depend on the laws of science to work for their safety. The main thing they must know as part of their act is where their center of gravity is at all times. If they lose this, they may not be around the perform their next act.

The students will be using the force and motion concepts they are learning this week and applying it in their Simple Machines unit, especially in their final projects for the unit.

For more information about the science of the circus, check out these sites:

• Circus Physics at PBS 
• The Science of the Circus: Physics 
• Super Scientific Circus
• Circus Stunts on Dragonfly TV 
• Balancing Act activity 
• Center of Gravity: Pencil Balance 

 

EDP - final week!

Its definitely the final week on our Engineering Design Process unit, and what a unit its been! The next time I do this unit, I will be putting more caps on the amount of time we spend on different parts. This is somewhat difficult to do with our short classes, but one I think we can manage. For starters, I've changed up the reviews for more student interaction and have been using more Kagan structures, such as paired sharing. Its taken a bit to get the students accustomed to the structures, but I think it will help all students in the classroom become more involved in their own learning.

This week the students are writing a reflection piece about how they worked together as a team to accomplish their products, reflecting on the highlights, what went well, what could have gone better, and what changes they would make as far as working as a team the next time.

I have one second grade team that has been trying to finish their project - they got a late start in that it took them several weeks in the beginning to decide on what they were going to make, but I think now they have gotten most of it together, they don't really want to stop. They were so excited and pleased with themselves when they finally figured out they could add other items to their drinking straw that they drew out of the bag originally, and decided to make a garden using straws as slats in fence surrounding the garden. They also could not decide who was going to take it home, so they have decided diplomatically that they would each take it home for a week and add to the garden with paper flower cut outs and toothpick stems. They needed some help with the hot glue adding the straws and wooden craft stick posts on, but the rest they each tenderly worked on as if it were their own garden.

Wooden craft stick fence posts hold plastic straw fencing that
surrounds this garden of green felt grass and construction paper.
Plastic trees from a cake topper were found for the trees, with
miniature pompom bushes, and a pipe cleaner flower. On the back
side is another flower cut from sheer printed ribbon with a straw stem.

Crazy scheduling is coming up next week with Dr. Martin Luther King Day on Monday and Record's day on Friday, with a zero Fine Arts day on Wednesday as we meet together with all of the classes, leaving just Tuesday and Thursday for classes. But, I keep telling the kids that the fun part of STEM, the really fun part, that is, is just around the corner! (Legos, K'Nex, and more!)

Kindergarten is taking a look at screws this week and comparing them to bolts, which are also screws in simple machines terms. I find it interesting how enthusiastic they can get over holding the real things and being able to see the differences between the two themselves. We've also compared a jar lid to a screw and talked about how the lid was like the inside of a hole for the screw, in that it has threads, just like when a screw goes into a hole and cuts threads.

And we are back!

Welcome back, STEM fans! We've had a good break, somehow those 16 days off do not quite seem long enough, but I'm excited to be back in school for the second half of the school year. (Well, not quite - the semester ends on the 20th.) I had a couple of wonderful workshops on the teachers' first day back, Twitter for Teachers, and Balsa Wood Bridge building. We also had a special guest engineer join us for TSA today, but more about that in the TSA blog.

We are down to the final two weeks of the Engineering Design Process. I have a couple of groups who would love to spend the whole year just working on their project, but we have to move on. I'm past where I should be and still have 3 more units to get through before the end of the school year - time to get moving!

Most of the classes are finishing up their write up in their journals this week. This is a challenge for some of them, I've noticed, but I have been allowing them to complete this part as a group, in discussion, but each one responsible for writing it down in their own journal. The students are writing and explaining to me the process they took (their group took) to create their solutions/projects. I'm tying this into their Language Arts by having them work on process writing. Since this class is only about 35 minutes long (at the most) and they see me once a week, the students will not be able to fully go through all of the writing process on this piece in their journals. But I'm looking for complete thoughts, standard writing elements (capitalization and punctuation in the lower grades; detailed explanations in the upper grades, along with correct grammar), and the ability to take their words, if they were to verbally explain it to me, and retell it in written format.

Although the students will not be able to physically complete the Improvement part of the Engineering Design Process, they will be completing this part in theory in their journals. I've asked them to tell me, if they were able to make improvements to their pieces, what would they do to make it better, and how would they go about accomplishing this.

First and fourth grade classes are also taking the Engineering Design Process test this week since they missed time during the week we were in the Cafeteria for Christmas program practice. They have already taken a pretest several weeks ago, before the break, and are reviewing before the test, so it should still be fresh in their minds.

A snowflake ornament made from spoons and painted craft sticks.

A few of the groups are still working on completing their creation step this week, like a group that is working on creating the London Tower Bridge from a plastic tray used to hold an laser printer ink cartridge in shipment - they have been gluing the towers and supports for the suspension cables, after painting and trying to cover up the bright orange plastic before Christmas. Another group is working to complete their garden, using plastic straws for the fencing. One of the first grade groups finished working on their snowflake made from plastic spoons this week. I can see the likeness of their finished project to their blueprint drawing they made months ago in their journal.

Its difficult to make out the writing in this picture of their journal
but on the left it says, "Engineering DP Loop
1. Ask the problem - How can we build from a straw popsicle craft stick?
2. Imagine - Brainstorming - See Jasmin's journal (Jasmin recorded
the brainstorming list for this team, but was not the one who recorded
the written plans as in the drawing of the snowflake on the right page.)

Kindergarten is beginning on the Simple Machines unit this week and touring the school looking for examples of Simple Machines in action. They all got so excited when we went up to the front and saw the flag pole. They all recognized the pulley on the flagpole and expressed how it saved the patrols from climbing up and down the pole each day for the flags.