Day 18: Creemore STEAM

Today we are blogging from Nottawasaga Creemore. This post will be updated throughout the day.

We are spending first block with the grade 3/4 class. Students will be designing and building pom-pom launchers. Jamila is starting us off with 'What do you do with an Idea?'

Students plan their devices:

And plans become targets:

Students are struggling with making devices that are reliable. They are iterating to try and solve the problem, and giving one another feedback on design modifications that might help. Ideas are made for sharing and the students are learning to utilize other's ideas to re-gig their devices.

Near the end of the activity, pom-poms become paint-delivery-devices. Everyone makes their mark on each target. Jackson Pollock! This STEAM brainstorm brought to you by Tyler Cave. 

Next up are the Grade 1/2 class. They will be creating a device solely out of  Lego that is designed to transport a juice box the farthest distance with one push!

When the students arrived, their inquiry skills were sparked by a read aloud from Amy of the story 'Iggy Peck Architect.

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Planning gets hands on and iterations begin based on successes and failures.

The dialogue that's happening with this group is blowing our minds. What a bunch of amazing little risk takers! Hypotheses and theories are developing about structural integrity, forces causing movement, friction and weight through pure trial, error and the ability to play with and manipulate their ideas.

Third block: grade 5/6 students are using the Tickle app to program the robots Sphero and Ollie. The goal is to have Ollie follow different paths and shapes. We need our math skills!