Year End Wrap Up Part 1

I'm in the process of adding photos and the students' projects to this site.  Here is part one in the series.

Straw Bridge Challenge -- Tuesday Class

Below are some shots from the last class of the Tuesday group.  They did the Straw Bridge Challenge.  The Challenge: build a bridge that spans 30cm and can hold a coffee can filled with golf balls.  You only have 15 straws and 25cm of tape.  Go!



If the slides aren't showing up, click this link.

Design Challenges

Design Challenges

This week we switched gears and all of the classes were given a design challenge to work on.  Before starting we talked about the design process.

The Design Process from the Design Squad Activity Guide (link) 

The Paper Table Design Challenge

The Summerland class and the Wednesday morning Penticton class were asked to build a table at least 20 cm tall that can support a heavy textbook.  The challenge?  The students were only allowed to use the following materials:

• 8 sheets of newspaper
• masking tape
• one 8" x 10" piece of cardboard 

Below are some photos of the building process (link):

Students will continue to work on this challenge next week.

Straw Bridge Challenge

The Penticton Wednesday and Thursday afternoon classes were given the straw bridge challenge.  Check out the pics below to see what the challenge was and how they approached it (link).

More Guests

This week we had two visitors form the School Board Office.  Mrs. Thomson (she visited the Summerland group last week) visited the Thursday afternoon class.  Mr. Manuel visited the Summerland group as they worked on the Paper Table Challenge.  Thank you for checking out what the students are learning about!

Open House, Zip Lines, and More

Open House

Last week the older students went on a field trip.  This week for the younger students it was Open House time!  For the AIM and Penticton grade 1/2 classes it was an opportunity to invite parents in to see what we've been working on.  Thank you to all of the parents who were able to drop in!  Both classes showed parents the recording work that we've been doing using Audacity.  We also showed them the deciphering tools we have been using on the Crypto Club website.

In the AIM class we put the parents to work; partnered with a student they took part in the Straw Bridge Building Challenge.  Each parent-student pair was given 15 straws and 25cm of masking tape.  Their task?  To make a bridge that spanned a 30 cm gap and was strong enough to support a coffee can.  The can could be rested on the top of the bridge, or suspended below the bridge using string.  The next part of the challenge was to see how many golf balls could be placed in the coffee can before the bridge collapsed.  Everyone was successful in building a strong bridge!  Caitlin and her dad blew away the old record for this challenge by building a bridge that supported 11 golf balls and 5 pairs of scissors.  We ran out of golf balls, thus the scissors.  Who knew we needed more than 11 golf balls?

AIM students and parents with their straw bridges.

The Penticton grade 1-2 class showed their parents the work they had been doing in Bitstrips, an online comic strip creation tool.  Students have been learning about how we communicate non-verbally using gestures, facial expressions and body language.  Bitstrips allows students to pose characters and adjust facial expressions.  Students helped parents create a character that looked just like them!  Later, students and parents deciphered a secret message and then used different materials to create messages in morse code.    

Zip Line Building Challenge

The ASPIRE class were given a new building challenge: design and build something to carry a ping pong ball from the top of a zip line to the bottom in 4 seconds or less.  This challenge involved dealing with friction and balance.  Students were quickly able to construct a vehicle to carry one ping pong ball.  They didn't stop there though; they were very motivated to see if they could carry two or more ping pong balls.  Watch the video below to see their results (link).

That's A Wrap!

The Penticton grade 3-5 classes did final work on their radio shows.  We also took the opportunity to listen to recently completed shows.    

Upcoming Events

Last week of classes: May 12th - 15th
Parent Meetings: starting May 26th.  Schedule with individual times will be sent home this week.   

Thanks for checking in and seeing what we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!

Brainstorming, Scytales and Straw Bridges

Here are some of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

Brainstorming

This week all of the students in grades 3 to 5 brainstormed topics to research under the broad heading of communication.  We started out with each class as a group suggesting topics. 

Communication Research Topic Ideas

Then students worked individually or in pairs; writing topic ideas on post-it notes and sticking them onto large sheets of paper.  Using post-it notes meant that if a student wrote down an idea and wasn't happy with it (either the idea, or that it was misspelled or messy) they could just discard it.  Handy for those perfectionists in the group.  It also meant that they could move ideas around on their page and group similar ideas together. 

Post-it note brainstorm

We talked about the DOVE principal of brainstorming:

D--Defer judgement

O--Oddball or outrageous ideas encouraged

V--Vast number of ideas

E--Expand or elaborate on ideas

The hardest DOVE principal for most students is deferring judgement.  We talked about how the key is to start getting ideas down.  Because one idea often leads to another, and another.  Eventually you end up with an idea that really strikes your fancy!  At times in the brainstorming process we stopped and looked at the ideas others were coming up with.  The ideas we liked, we borrowed, or they made us think of new ideas.

After brainstorming, some of the classes were able to start researching the communication topic in which they were most interested.  All of the grade 3, 4 and 5s will be spending time more time on this research in upcoming classes.

Scytales

What is a scytale?  Ask our grade 1 & 2 Wednesday afternoon class!  We continued our exploration of steganography (hidden messages) by creating our own scytales.  Scytales have been in use since at least the 7th century.  A message is encrypted by wrapping a strip of paper (parchment or leather were used in earlier times) around a cylinder.  The message is then written on the paper.  When the paper is unwound, it just looks like a random collection of letters.  To decipher the message, it must be wound around a cylinder of the same diameter as was used originally.  We used long strips of paper and wound them around some wooden cylinders.  At home you could use cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls or wrapping paper rolls.

Straw Bridge Challenge

The Summerland ASPIRE class did the Straw Bridge Challenge.  Last week they were given the instructions for this challenge, but they were encrypted.  Students had to use their code breaking savvy to decrypt the instructions.  This week it was time to do the challenge.  Each small group of students were given 

• 15 thin drinking straws
• 25 cm of masking tape
• 1 pair of scissors

The goal was to make a bridge that spanned a 30 cm gap and was strong enough to support a coffee can.  The can could be rested on the top of the bridge, or suspended below the bridge using string.  The next part of the challenge was to see how many golf balls could be placed in the coffee can before the bridge collapsed.  

This activity encouraged students to think creatively.  They also had to be able to communicate well with their partner(s).  Below are photos of some of the bridges as they were being built:

 

The photos above show three very different approaches to the bridge structure.  The top bridge was the strongest; holding the coffee can and 2 golf balls.

Non-Verbal Communication

Finally, all of the classes have been looking at non-verbal communication.  Whether it is by playing Charades / Funny Faces or by acting out a narrative walk.  So beware; the students are becoming skilled at interpreting the non-verbal signs we all transmit! 

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to!