Last week's STEM class was all about making a code for our partner to follow using arrows. The code had to bring us from on side of the grid paper to the other, using a little turtle as our pawn. This activity proved to be a challenge, but not one that we were not up for! More practice in precise instruction giving to come!
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Today, in STEM, we talked about what coding meant and what it related to in our everyday lives. Some of the students have already been exposed to coding in various ways, whether through iPad apps, after-school clubs, big sisters or brothers. Our activity today was to make a maze using q-tips and then write a code so that our little turtles could follow the code and go from point a to the star at the end. It was a very serious activity, hence all the serious faces!!! Once we finished, we sat and took turns doing a similar activity using the coloured grid carpet. Now we are not too far form being programming experts! Or inspired for now :)
During our STEM period yesterday, we put on our engineering hats and listened to a story about the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the story of a little girl who was so excited to walk on the bridge after it was built. She watched as it was being built and finally, when it was ready, she asked her parents if they could go for a walk on the bridge. Her parents and many other family members and friends were not convinced that it would be safe and so the little girl was not allowed to go. After visiting the circus one day, the little girl thought of an idea. What if 21 elephants were to cross the bridge, then everyone would believe that the bridge was indeed strong enough and would not collapse. The little girl organized just that, and finally everyone was convinced as the elephants crossed the bridge!
Our challenge, after listening to the story, was to make a bridge using popsicle sticks and cups. Once we were confident that our bridge would hold 21 little figures (not exactly elephants), then we tried. If the bridge fell, then we had to re-engineer the bridge and try again! We have now had our first two STEM classes with the Senior Kindergarten students. During our first class, we read a book titled, 'The MOST MAGNIFICENT Thing'. It's a great little book that relates to the subject at hand. Then, we talked about what STEM meant, we learned that it is an acronym and we did a little brainstorm to see what we know about each of the the words that make up STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING and MATHEMATICS). Each week, we'll briefly discuss what the words mean and add any new information we learn to our STEM description chart.
We also built cubes using marshmallows and toothpicks. As we were building, some of our cubes were tilting to one side. We talked about how we could build a stable structure and how we needed to ensure that the joints (or corners as they were also called) were secure and strong. During the second STEM class, we finished up our cubes, in case they were not quite complete, and then tested their strength by placing a light book on them.
Yesterday, we were invited to the grade 1-2 class to watch their Makey Makey projects in action. They spent time with each student explaining how it worked and letting them try it out! Thanks so much!
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Welcome to the daily life of Académie de la Capitale's Junior / Senior Kindergarten class! We hope you enjoy this window into our classroom as much as we enjoy sharing it!Archives
October 2022
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