Presentations and Amusing a Goldfish

Thanks for checking the TWIG blog to see what we did... This Week In Gifted!

Presentations 

All of the students in the Wednesday morning class have presented their slide shows featuring the underwater creature that they made for our underwater scene.  The students did a great job presenting their work.  As the audience, students were encouraged to ask good questions and to let their peers know what they did well in their presentations.

Here is a short video showing the underwater scene the Wednesday morning class created (link).  In it you can see; a brittle star, a colossal squid, a mythical kraken seizing a ship, a sea cucumber, and a sea tortoise. 


The Wednesday afternoon class has started doing their presentations.  This week we learned about the Angler Fish from London.  We look forward to learning from the rest of the students about the creatures they chose.

The Thursday afternoon class just got started on their slide shows this week -- I look forward to sharing their work in future posts!

Amusing a Goldfish

The Wednesday morning and the Thursday afternoon groups each participated in an activity called Ready Set Design.  In this activity students are given a problem to solve and asked to make a prototype using specific materials.  They have a short amount of time to come up with their design.  Once they have created it, they explain the design to their peers.  This week's problem was:   “I need a way to amuse my goldfish while I am at school - she seems to miss me when I’m away”.  The materials available were:
- 1 small paper plate
- 3 pipe cleaners
- 3 popsicle sticks
- 1 medium balloon
Students were not allowed to use scissors or tape.
The range of designs was truly incredible!  Some students created a bit of a playground for the fish, complete with a punching bag.  Others drew a likeness of themselves on the paper plate so the fish didn't feel abandoned.  One student created a helium balloon filled transportation system so the fish could explore the house!  The Thursday group was intent on not just amusing the fish, but giving it a bit of a scare with images of scary cats and dogs.  Lots of creative, out of the "tank" thinking ;-) 

Underwater Scene

Here's what we've been up to in the past couple of weeks!

Underwater Scene Update

The Wednesday afternoon group have finished making their models of underwater creatures.  They are now working on making short slide shows, using Google Slides, to highlight the key features of their creatures.

Check out their creatures in the video below.

The Wednesday morning group have finished the models for their underwater scene; we're just putting it all together and adding some finishing touches.  The Thursday afternoon group is making a diorama and it is coming along nicely!  See future posts for a look at both of these projects.

Deep Sea Fun

All of the classes checked out the interactive website The Deep Sea, where we explored to the very depths of the ocean!

Watersheds and the Water Cycle

The Wednesday morning group learned more about watersheds and the water cycle.  We also discussed water conservation.

These are just a few of the things we've been doing for the past couple of weeks.  Thanks for checking in! 

Watercraft Design Challenge

And we're back!  Take a look at how we started 2020.

The Watercraft Design Challenge

Students were given the following challenge; build a boat with limited materials (see below) that is able to float for at least 10 seconds while carrying 8 heavy washers.  The boat is floated empty, and then the washers are added one at a time.

The materials they were allowed to use were:

• two 8oz paper cups
• 10 skinny straws
• a 25cm long piece of Saran Wrap
• duct tape

Before building their boats, we discussed the design process:

 
A key part of the process is it is iterative -- after you test your design you evaluate it and then tweak it, coming up with an improved design.

The students did an amazing job and the variety of boat designs was truly wonderful!  As they tested their designs they had to deal with making their boats more stable or more waterproof.  The best part of the challenge was that once each student or pair of students came up with a successful design, they were willing to do more: either make it capable of carrying more washers, or trying a different design or challenging themselves to make a boat with less materials.

Check out the slides below (link) to see the students in action:



This design challenge came from the PBS Kids Design Squad Activity Guide.

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

Water Olympics

Here is what we've been up to... This Week (and last!) in Gifted.

H₂O Olympics

This week students participated in the H₂O Olympics!  Seven events which allowed them to explore different aspects of water.  Check out the events in the slideshow below (link).



After each of the events we discussed the properties of water that contributed to the students' observations.

5 Card Photo Story

Last week the Wednesday morning class exercised their creativity with a 5 Card Photo Story.  The students were presented with 5 photos (shown below).  With only 5 minutes to brainstorm, they needed to come up with an engaging story that included each of the photographs.  The resulting stories were funny with unexpected twists and turns!  When students were participating as audience members, they were asked to give appreciations -- what did each storyteller do well?

Underwater Scene

Students continued to work on the creatures for our underwater scene.  Some students have started to create short slideshows with information on the sea creatures they made for our scene.  Benjamin and Skyler have also created a website to share what they have learned!  We'll be sharing that in a future post.  Check out the progress below (link).

Classes wrapped up for December

We've had our last class for 2019.  Classes will start up again in January when school resumes.

Someone asked me the other day what I see myself doing in the new year.  I said: "How would I know?  I don't have 2020 vision!"  (Bud doom boomp!)  Happy Holidays everyone :-)

Creating an Underwater Scene

For the past couple of weeks students have been working on creating models of aquatic creatures.  The models will be incorporated into a number of different underwater scenes.  Students are working on; tube coral, a colossal squid,  a brittle star, angler fish, salmon, deep sea dragon fish, puffer fish, star fish, a manta ray and more.  Check out the progress that is being made in the slides below (link).

Cholera Mystery

The Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon groups worked on solving a mystery!  They looked at evidence similar to what Dr. John Snow had access to when he solved the mystery of the cause of the 1854 London cholera outbreak.  Students used maps and information about the victims movements (where they worked, where they lived, places they frequented) to hone in on the source of the cholera outbreak.  Great detective work was demonstrated, and yes, they solved the mystery!

Update on Art in the Style of Roy Henry Vickers

In a previous post I described the work that students were doing to create images with the visual themes seen in the art of Roy Henry Vickers.  All of the students have now completed their pieces and so I've updated the slideshow (link).  Each student incorporated three key elements into their work; bands of colour to represent sunrise/sunset, silhouettes of landscape in the background and silhouettes of people or animals in the foreground, and a single block of blue water.  Although the pieces share these three elements, there is also a a great deal of diversity in the images. 





Thank you for checking in to see what we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!

Art in the Style of Roy Henry Vickers

For the past couple of classes, students have been learning about the work of visual artist Roy Henry Vickers.  Roy Henry Vickers is a BC artist who currently spends his time between Hazelton and Tofino.  Much of his artistic work focuses on scenes involving water.  We did a concept attainment lesson to explore the visual themes in a selection of Vickers's work.  Students then created pieces with the same visual themes.  Some students are still finishing their pieces, but you can see the process and some of the completed works in the slideshow below (link).

Water Fun Facts

This week the Wednesday classes did a fun activity to learn some more facts about water.  We started off with a quick multiple choice quiz (link) where students were asked to give their best guesses.  Then they did some research to find out what the correct answers to the questions were.  Then it was showdown time!  Kids pitted their wits against each other in a game of 'Kahoot!', an online quiz where students race to be the first to enter their answer.  Points are awarded not just for being correct, but for answering quickly.  It was tense at times, but lots of fun!  Now we know:

• how much of the world's freshwater is found in Canada
• the name of the longest river entirely located in Canada
• which province's name means "river that flows swiftly" in Cree
• how much of the earth is covered in water
• where Canada ranks in terms of our per person water use (hint: it's not great)
• and much, much more!

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

October Round Up!

Here's what we've been up to in the first few weeks of classes!

Back Into the Swing of Things

Students were keen to get back into things and the classes are really gelling.  Great conversations are happening during social time and during our class discussions.  See the photos taken during social time (slides below) to get a sense of this.

This Year's Theme 

As most students guessed, this year's theme deals with Water!  In our first class we talked about what we know about water and all the different ways that it impacts our lives.  Over the coming months we will be:

• creating an underwater scene
• looking at water in the art of Roy Henry Vickers
• researching underwater life

Sticky Water

Our first exploration of water was to look at water from the molecular level.  We learned that each water molecule is made of 1 oxygen atom and 2 hydrogen atoms.  We also learned that water is 'sticky'.  The hydrogen atoms have slight positive charges and the oxygen atom has a slight negative charge.  This means that water molecules are attracted to each other by these weak hydrogen bonds.

We explored the sticky nature of water by doing a little experiment with water and nickles.  You can see the results in the slides below.
 

October In Pictures 

Below are photos from October (link).  Enjoy and thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to!