All posts by Jenny Henningsen

Animal Robots

Full STEAM Ahead, Uncategorized,

While the word “robot” can conjure up an image of a cyborg human with lights for eyes and super powers, animal-inspired robots are accomplishing tasks in all kinds of medical, military and rescue work. These anibots perform tasks that would be difficult and often dangerous for mere mortals, or even human droids, to accomplish

Learn about these 3 types of animal robots 

Pneupard is a robot that is designed to be agile and fast like cheetahs and other cats. Pneupard has artificial muscles made from rubber tubing that are covered in nylon and filled with air. The pneumatic muscles have lifelike abilities that allow the bot to replicate the range of motion and strength of a real cat!

Watch this video about Pneupard and create a visual answering the questions below.

  • How are these engineers using robots to learn about nature?
  • Why are cheetah’s ultra complex to recreate?
  • What did the engineers learn when the were in the park
  • What animal would you choose to recreate as a robot? What part or parts of this animal would be ultra complex to recreate?

 

One modern robot flier is called ornithopter. Ornithopter looks and flies much like a real bird. One sweet little ornithopter is used as a nano-spybot, equipped with a tiny camera.

Watch this video about Ornithopter and answer the questions create a visual answering the questions below.

  • What materials are used to make this robot?
  • What other material come to mind that might work?
  • Have you ever seen a servo motor? If not where else might it be used? If you have seen one, what was its purpose?
  • What is visually interesting to you about this robot? What woud you change?

 

Create slime-tasic-fun! 

Full STEAM Ahead, Learning Opportunities, Mini Challenges

Making slime is a fun way to study science. Print out the Science Guide and the My Slime Recipe Book to use while you are learning about slime science.

 Science Guide

My SLIMEBOOK

*****Check out the slime badge on the EY webpage***********

 

The SLIMEBOOK  is 2 page document. Print double sided and cut it in half and staple or glue it together to make a 6 page booklet with 3 slime recipes and a short explanation regarding polymer

Ideas for this lesson are adapted from lessons written by Science Mom. You can find more of her lessons at YouTube.

Coding Challenges

Full STEAM Ahead, Mini Challenges

The Hour of Code is celebrated the week of Dec 3-9th.

Look over these fun project ideas and write some lines of code to celebrate the Hour of Code any day of  the year. As you are looking at the resources, make sure to check out the coding badges that you can earn.

Scratch Jr

This app is in Self Service. With this app, you can create a game that reviews any of the ideas you have done in science.  When you are done, share your game with your class.

Watch these instructions for how to make some pages in scratch.

Are you working on badges? Link to scratch badge information.

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Cargo Bot

This app is in self service and is a fun way to learn the basics of
coding and it will help you strengthen your problem solving as well.
Here is a tutorial from YouTube that shows you how to play.

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Hour of Code Challenges

These challenges are found online. Go to code.org to sign up with Goggle to get started.

Are you working on badges? Link to Hour of Code badge information.

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Bitsbox

(app development)

This coding resource is accessed online. To get started, kids login at bitsbox.com with his/her Google account. There is a star in the top right hand corner to tap to get started.

Here is a link to a few free coding projects provided by Bitsbox.

Are you working on badges? Link to Bitsbox badge information.

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Swift Playground

This app is in Self Service.

You will sign on using your Google information.

Start with learn to Code 1.

Are you working on badges? Link to Swift Playground badge information.

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Tynker

This app is in Self Service.

Your teacher needs to have an account and he/she will give you a code to sign in.

  • Go to https://www.tynker.com
  • Log in to Tynker with your Google information
  • Enter the class code when prompted
  • Contact the EY coordinator in your building if you need help.

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National STEM/STEAM Day

Full STEAM Ahead, Learning Opportunities, Mini Challenges

NATIONAL S.T.E.M./S.T.E.A.M. DAY is celebrated on November 8, but you can create STEM and ART all year long!

Check out a few of these STEM/STEAM related experiments that you can do to celebrate the national day dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.

Secret Agent Ink

Magic Tie-Dyed Milk

Striped Holiday Tower

Slime Monster

 

1. Choose the one that is most interesting to you

2. Collect the materials you need. Contact the EY coordinator in your building via email if you need help with this step.

3. Take pictures from your experiment

4. Create a one paragraph summary about your project

5. Submit your work to your teacher the EY coordinator in your building.

**********ALERT************

Completing one of these experiments, taking a few pictures, and a writing a summary of your project will allow for you to earn the DYI Superstar Badge. Check it out on the digital badge page

 

Post adapted from https://projectmc2.mgae.com/#/experiments

 

L. Arts Mini-Spark #37: Create your own National Day

Reading Enrichment

Did you know that November 3rd

is national sandwich day?

December 7th is national letter writing day,  and January  7th is national bobblehead day.

Click on the red link for each these days and write a few sentence telling us about each

one.

What day do feel deserves to add to the list of national celebrations?

Pickle day? Nope, that won’t work. It’s already observed on November 15.

How about National fuzzy sock day?

 Wear your cozy socks and keep your feet toasty warm all day long!

That won’t work. It’s already a day people celebrate it on December 21st!

What would be a day that you would LOVE to celebrate? Start brainstorming to think of a special day. When you have a list of several choices, do research to find one  that is not already observed.

When you find one that can be your very own, create your own informational apple clip project about your day.

Include this information:

The name of your day and 5-10 facts about your topic.

Why it is important enough to be a national day?

How people can celebrate this day?

Add color and illustrations to your clips.

Share your project with your teacher or the EY coordinator in your building.

 

Early Enrichment #38 Create your own National Day

Early Enrichment, Uncategorized

Did you know that November 3rd

is national sandwich day?

December 7th is national letter writing day,  and January  7th is national bobblehead day.

Click on the red link for each these days and write a few sentence telling us about each

one.

What day do feel deserves to add to the list of national celebrations?

Pickle day? It’s observed on November 15.

How about National fuzzy sock day? It’s a day people celebrate it on December 21st!

What would be a day that you would LOVE to celebrate? Start brainstorming. Create a list of 10 days that you would enjoy having as special days on the calendar.

After you create your list, choose your very favorite day. Create your own informational apple clip project about your day.

Include this information:

The name of your day

3-5 facts about your topic

How we can celebrate this day?

Why it is important enough to be a national day?

Add color and illustrations to your clips.

EXTRA: Do research to find out if your day is already celebrated. If so, add that date to your clip project.

Share your project with your teacher or the EY coordinator in your building.

 

 

 

 

 

#54: Multiplication

Math Minute
Multiplication. It is one of the four types of operations you learned in math (along with addition subtraction and division). There are many different ways to multiply numbers. However, sometimes, multiplying really big numbers can be a challenge. Luckily, there are many different techniques you can use to solve large multiplication problems.

How can you spend your Math Minutes this week?

  1. Watch this video about multiplying using lines. Post a comment about something new you learned.  When leaving a comment, type your first name, grade level, and school (i.e. Trevor, 3, Sunset).  Do not type in your email address.
  2. Print out (or have your teacher print out) this worksheet. Use the method in the video to come up with answers to multiplication problems. You can check your answers on the second page of the worksheet. If you feel comfortable with those problems and want to try multiplying bigger numbers, then print out this worksheet.
  3. Want to learn another math trick? Watch this video for a way to check the answers to your multiplication problems you solved in the worksheets.
  4. Use the app Explain Everything to do the problems. Draw out the pictures and send them to your EY coordinator.

*Lesson inspired by multiplication lessons from East Asian schools

#52: Super Egg

Math Minute

Numberphile is a YouTube channel that posts many videos about many different math concepts. The channel has numerous videos on many real life examples. It is a great channel to learn about concepts not necessarily taught in school. One video that the channel contains is about a super egg, or a superellipse.

How can you spend your Math Minutes this week?

  • Watch the video linked below and then post a comment sharing something new you learned about math, geometry and/or engineering.  When posting a comment, use your first name, grade, and school (i.e. Tyler, 5, Sunset).  Do not publish your email.
  • After watching the videos, click on this link and answer the questions.
  • Share this video with your parents, friends, and/or adults and ask them about real life uses of math

Numberphile Video: http://youtu.be/GznQgTdEdI4

*Lesson inspired by Numberphile video about superellipses

#50: Fibonacci Numbers

Math Minute

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144

What do these numbers have in common? What pattern do you see? These numbers are a part of what is known as the fibonacci numbers. Fibonacci numbers are found by adding the two previous numbers. So the number after 144 would be 233.

How can you spend your Math Minutes this week?

  • Read about the fibonacci numbers here. Read the about first three sections at least, you can read further on if you want.
  • Get graph paper and make a spiral using a fibonacci sequence, read through the previous link for reference.
  • These numbers can be found in nature. Can you think of other real life examples of fibonacci numbers?
  • Post a comment sharing something new you learned.  When posting a comment, use your first name, grade, and school (i.e. Tyler, 5, Sunset).  Do not publish your email.

*Inspired by a video by Vi Hart

#51: Good Will Hunting Problem

Math Minute

Today’s age is filled with a wide variety of forms of entertainment. Television shows and movies are some of the most common forms today. Usually we don’t associate math with these however there have been some movies and episodes with a focus on a math topic. One such movie is Good Will Hunting. The movie has a particular math problem in which an MIT professor claims it took him years to solve. The problem basically to draw all shapes that fit the description. There are ten shapes in total. MIT is one of the best universities in the world. Are you able to solve the problem that supposedly took an MIT professor a long time to solve in a day or less? Find out!

How can you spend your Math Minutes this week?

  • Watch the video linked below.  The video introduces the problem and explains how to solve it.  Pause around 2:30 so you don’t see the answers until after you attempt the problem.
  • After pausing the video, try drawing all 10 trees. You can check your answers near the end of the video in which he shares the answers
  • Post a comment sharing something new you learned.  When posting a comment, use your first name, grade, and school (i.e. Tyler, 5, Sunset).  Do not publish your email.
  • Share this video with your parents, friends, and/or adults and ask them if they can solve the problem as well

Good Will Hunting Math Problem

*Inspired by the movie Good Will Hunting