More Marvelous Microscopes!

Here are a few of the things we did... This Week In Gifted!

A Few (Very) Small Things

This week all of the classes got to use the microscopes!  We learned about the parts of the microscopes by doing this online tutorial.  Then we switched over to the real microscopes and the students got to work viewing a variety of things; torn paper, color photos (mind blowing under medium power!), typed numbers and letters, fabric, eyelashes, hair...

Students also got the opportunity to check out a virtual compound microscope here and view blood cells, bone cells, cheek cells, and onion cells.  There was also a virtual scanning electron microscope where students tried to identify specimens such as skeletal muscle, a housefly mouth, spider eyes etc.



For access to the step-by-step lessons that link to the online microscope links students can log on to our Moodle class and click on the 'Microscopes' link.

• Go here
• Students enter their school district username and password
• Click on the Microscope 'Book' icon and away you go!

Projects

We also did more work on our projects.  Tessa, from the Penticton Grade 5 Class, presented her project in Comic Life on different ways that pets are identified.  All of the students will present their completed projects to their peers.  Their peers will ask questions and give appreciations (say what they thought the presenter did well).

Progress Reports

On Monday I e-mailed out progress reports for each student outlining what we have done so far this year.  If you haven't received your child's report, please contact me.

Spring Break

Next week is the last week of classes prior to Spring Break.  Classes will resume again on the week of March 29th.

New Space and Microscopic Investigations

Here are a few of the things we've been up to for the past Two Weeks In Gifted.

Summerland AIM/ASPIRE Gets a New Home

Two weeks ago the Summerland group moved into a different classroom at Trout Creek Elementary.  It's very exciting because now we have:
- carpet!
- a sink!
- a 'treehouse'!
- easy access to the washrooms and water fountains!
I took great photos of the students enjoying their new space, but... my phone is on the fritz so you'll just have to imagine how thrilled they were with the 'treehouse' and other aspects of the room.

5 Card Photo Story

All of the classes tried their hands at a 5 Card Photo Story.  It works like this; students are shown 5 images, they then have 5 minutes to plan a story that involves each of the 5 images.  They can work alone or in pairs.  After the 5 minutes are up, the students take turns telling their stories to the class.  After each story is told, the rest of the students give appreciations--what they thought the students did well.  The students are getting quite good at coming up with interesting stories and with offering positive feedback to their peers!
Here are the images that the students had to use for their stories (link):

Microscopes

This past week the Wednesday classes (Penticton 4s and 5s) got the opportunity to work with some compound microscopes.  We talked a little about how microscopes are used to identify and match crime scene evidence.  Students looked at some of the following under the microscope:

- strands of hair (with and without glitter in it!)

- cloth fibers

- cookie crumbs

- torn paper

- coloured magazine images

- eraser bits

Again, I took some great pics of the students using the microscope, but my phone is on the fritz.  Imagine students in pairs eagerly viewing things through small student microscopes--sometimes with looks of astonishment on their faces at what they are seeing and you'll get the gist of things!  

We will be doing more with the microscopes in the coming weeks.

Project Time

Students are still working away at their projects.  Some projects are finished, or just receiving their final touches.  Other projects are further away from completion, which is just fine. 

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