Science & Tech - Sculptris

Teaching students skills that will be relevant when they are adults can be tough. As teachers we spend a lot of time theorizing what skills will make current students marketable, employable, and successful. That often means exploring uncommon areas of technological learning. 

One big aspect of our technology time is learning about tools used for 3D printing. One of the programs we have grown to love is Sculptris. It's a 3D sculpting program using computers. Sounds easy but the mechanics are complex.

Masked as an art program, Sculptris actually provides a lot of opportunities for developing tech schools. Students learn how to :  

-recognize file types associated with 3D printing

- saving and sharing documents into shared drives

- use of rendering programs for design and coloring

- visualization of objects with multiple dimensional

This type of modeling and rendering are used in various fields ranging from movies to merchandising. 

Here are a few samples of our work so far.

Paper Tower Challenge

One of our topics this year is engineering. This week we started our first engineering challenge by posing a question to our classes. How tall of a tower can you build using only paper and glue sticks. 

They met the challenge with excitement but with varied success. 

The approaches were very different as well. Some took the approach of a base with round towers, drawing on traditional architecture.

Some tried organic shapes, crushed together and then adhered in a line.

Others tried geometric shapes to work like building blocks.

But some, took an artistic approach. 

After the construction stage, we measured each free standing object. We had one clear winner. Oddly enough it was the one who had taken the more artistic approach. 

The quick second was a team using simple flat, wave shaped paper to stack.

We plan to continue this challenge. Each time changing the parameters and materials. Pairing these challenges with our in class lessons about traditional engineering discoveries should give us evidence of the student's growth in understanding how the building process works.

This process is part of our connection with the Washington Next Generation Science Standards.

Students who demonstrate understanding can: 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Understanding Math through Words

Understanding math can be difficult. Explaining math can feel even more difficult. This week in math we tried to break down our counting system. The above description is one given by the Wolfram Alpha website. I think ours are a bit easier to understand.

The instructions were to explain, using diagrams, pictures, and words what 1241 means. Explain its value. Explain it's set representation. 

In many of the answers we saw some really good explanations of how base systems work. Differentiating that numbers are symbols called integers was a big step in understanding how number systems work.

Also, understanding the difference between a numbers innate value and it's symbolic representation can be critical for long term math understanding.

So often in math we focus on rote memorization. 

But what happens when we get our students to really understand math?

The Speed of Neurons

Science, science, and more science. We can never get enough of it. 

This little flashback moment was from the first day of school. No sense in waiting to get us started. We had a guest teacher, Mr. Cory, who was a long time Seabury staff member. Mr. Cory taught about the speed of neurons. We tried to calculate the speed of the electrical current that moved through our bodies.

These simple movement experiments were designed to illustrate the speed at which our bodies transmit data through action and reaction.

We used connections through our feet and wrists, or elbows or hands to represent the neuron pathways.

 Then we calculated the speeds and averages. Math and science in one lesson?! Hard to beat that.

It was a great lesson that spanned topics of pyschology, biology, math, and electricity. Integrated sciences at their best! A bit thanks to Mr. Cory for his hard work.

- Mr. B

Getting to Know Each Other

So much of a student's success in school comes from their ability to connect with peers and teachers. Each year we select specific activities for our classes geared toward helping establish those connections. In doing so we can promote comfort, trust, and friendships.

In these Hula-Hoop challenges, students either worked as a large group or in small team to move a the hoop. For some activities, that meant carrying the hoop with only your feet. In other activities, that meant linking hands and moving each student through the hoop. 

Coordination and communication were really important parts of the success of our groups.

 A little silliness certainly didn't hurt either. 

The value of these early relationship building activities go far a single grade. These early, silly activities can lay the foundations for well developed connections that can follow students through school. 

"Child development experts agree that close friendships can be good for children for a number of reasons. They can provide shelter and protection from traumatic childhood experiences, teasing and rejection among them. They can help boys and girls navigate their way through the social minefields that exist at school." - Scholastic 

- Mr. B