STEM Week 2018!
During the week of April 30th – May 4th, students explored the branches of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) at Adler Park School! Each student in grades 1 – 5 was treated to three lessons involving STEM. Kindergartners were a part of STEM week this year with one session!
Below is a description of the activities that each grade level experienced throughout the week! Please ask your child about the details of their lessons to find out more about his/her experiences! I had such a fun week exploring STEM with all of your children!
I would like to thank our AMAZING AFA for financially supporting STEM Week. This year they purchased the brand new Chain Reaction Kits for our third graders! A special thank you to Wendy Bownas and Nicole Sesi for organizing the thousands of pieces from these kits! We are so lucky to have a parent association that values this experience enough to finance it! I’d also like to thank all the parent volunteers who helped throughout the week. Your assistance was invaluable in making this such a successful week for our kids! THANK YOU!
Sincerely,
Emily Weber
GTE Teacher
Kindergarten: The Recess Queen
After enjoying the picture book, The Recess Queen, we looked at pictures of objects found on a playground. Students were challenged to design a playground and started by working as a team to create a plan. When their plan was complete, they used: straws, Q-Tips, plates, yarn, clay, pipe cleaners and construction paper to build their playgrounds! I was so impressed with the kindergarteners teamwork and creativity!
1st Grade: Picture Books Inspiring STEM
During our first lesson, students enjoyed the book, Rosie Revere, Engineer. We then made paper helicopters with only a paper template and a paper clip. Students were then challenged to design a new paper helicopter that would fall more slowly to the ground than the original. On day two, students listened to Curious George and the Boat Race. They then had to create a plan with their team to use a bag of given materials to float five plastic monkeys. All were successful and came up with at least one design! Finally, we read the story, If I Were President. After looking at pictures of the White House, students were challenged to build their own White House out of different size notecards!
2nd Grade: Gingerbread Man Traps
During our first lesson students listened to Gingerbread Man Loose in the School! Students learned about their challenge in a letter from Mrs. Bongle, and about all of the mischief being caused by the gingerbread men that were loose in our school! They were then able to use 20 credits to shop at the GMT (Gingerbread Man Trapping) Store. During students' next experience, they built their traps as a team and placed them in the school. Finally, students collected their traps and many of them caught gingerbread men! But why did some catch a Gingerbread Man and not others? We analyzed the factors that led to trapping these unlucky cookies and discovered that all the traps that had gold coins or jewels as their bait were successful! Mrs. Bongle then came to our room with a mysterious letter and treats from the head Gingerbread Man to reward all of the 2nd graders for their clever work! Thanks to the 2nd graders, Adler Park School is rid of their rascally cookie problem and were able to enjoy some gummy bears!
3rd Grade: Chain Reaction Inventions
Students had so much fun working as a team to create various contraptions into one working Chain Reaction Invention! Please view these amazing inventions in action with the document link below:
https://tinyurl.com/y9rt5fwe
4th Grade: Electricity Challenge
We started our STEM exploration with three electricity challenges. Students had to create a working circuit with a bulb, a working circuit that operated with a switch, and finally a series and parallel circuit. On day two, students were introduced to their engineering challenge: design a four room house with four working bulbs that all operate on switches. Students were invited to bring in additional décor and miniature furniture to add the finishing touches to their house designs!
5th Grade: Newton's Second Law
Students began their exploration of Newton's Second Law by filling a film canister with water and Alka Seltzer and using the acceleration of the film canister explosion with the produced gas to propel another film canister filled with different numbers of pennies along Hot Wheels tracks. Students were able to see that with more mass, there is less movement. During our second meeting, students were introduced to their engineering challenge: design an Alka Seltzer powered Lego car that will travel the furthest distance. In order to do this, students had to keep the forces acting upon their car in mind and go through the engineering process. I was so impressed with students tenacious and diligent teamwork as they all tried to create the best car possible! Our winning team’s vehicle travelled 185.5 cm and won a bag of Gummy Bears!
During the week of April 30th – May 4th, students explored the branches of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) at Adler Park School! Each student in grades 1 – 5 was treated to three lessons involving STEM. Kindergartners were a part of STEM week this year with one session!
Below is a description of the activities that each grade level experienced throughout the week! Please ask your child about the details of their lessons to find out more about his/her experiences! I had such a fun week exploring STEM with all of your children!
I would like to thank our AMAZING AFA for financially supporting STEM Week. This year they purchased the brand new Chain Reaction Kits for our third graders! A special thank you to Wendy Bownas and Nicole Sesi for organizing the thousands of pieces from these kits! We are so lucky to have a parent association that values this experience enough to finance it! I’d also like to thank all the parent volunteers who helped throughout the week. Your assistance was invaluable in making this such a successful week for our kids! THANK YOU!
Sincerely,
Emily Weber
GTE Teacher
Kindergarten: The Recess Queen
After enjoying the picture book, The Recess Queen, we looked at pictures of objects found on a playground. Students were challenged to design a playground and started by working as a team to create a plan. When their plan was complete, they used: straws, Q-Tips, plates, yarn, clay, pipe cleaners and construction paper to build their playgrounds! I was so impressed with the kindergarteners teamwork and creativity!
1st Grade: Picture Books Inspiring STEM
During our first lesson, students enjoyed the book, Rosie Revere, Engineer. We then made paper helicopters with only a paper template and a paper clip. Students were then challenged to design a new paper helicopter that would fall more slowly to the ground than the original. On day two, students listened to Curious George and the Boat Race. They then had to create a plan with their team to use a bag of given materials to float five plastic monkeys. All were successful and came up with at least one design! Finally, we read the story, If I Were President. After looking at pictures of the White House, students were challenged to build their own White House out of different size notecards!
2nd Grade: Gingerbread Man Traps
During our first lesson students listened to Gingerbread Man Loose in the School! Students learned about their challenge in a letter from Mrs. Bongle, and about all of the mischief being caused by the gingerbread men that were loose in our school! They were then able to use 20 credits to shop at the GMT (Gingerbread Man Trapping) Store. During students' next experience, they built their traps as a team and placed them in the school. Finally, students collected their traps and many of them caught gingerbread men! But why did some catch a Gingerbread Man and not others? We analyzed the factors that led to trapping these unlucky cookies and discovered that all the traps that had gold coins or jewels as their bait were successful! Mrs. Bongle then came to our room with a mysterious letter and treats from the head Gingerbread Man to reward all of the 2nd graders for their clever work! Thanks to the 2nd graders, Adler Park School is rid of their rascally cookie problem and were able to enjoy some gummy bears!
3rd Grade: Chain Reaction Inventions
Students had so much fun working as a team to create various contraptions into one working Chain Reaction Invention! Please view these amazing inventions in action with the document link below:
https://tinyurl.com/y9rt5fwe
4th Grade: Electricity Challenge
We started our STEM exploration with three electricity challenges. Students had to create a working circuit with a bulb, a working circuit that operated with a switch, and finally a series and parallel circuit. On day two, students were introduced to their engineering challenge: design a four room house with four working bulbs that all operate on switches. Students were invited to bring in additional décor and miniature furniture to add the finishing touches to their house designs!
5th Grade: Newton's Second Law
Students began their exploration of Newton's Second Law by filling a film canister with water and Alka Seltzer and using the acceleration of the film canister explosion with the produced gas to propel another film canister filled with different numbers of pennies along Hot Wheels tracks. Students were able to see that with more mass, there is less movement. During our second meeting, students were introduced to their engineering challenge: design an Alka Seltzer powered Lego car that will travel the furthest distance. In order to do this, students had to keep the forces acting upon their car in mind and go through the engineering process. I was so impressed with students tenacious and diligent teamwork as they all tried to create the best car possible! Our winning team’s vehicle travelled 185.5 cm and won a bag of Gummy Bears!