STEAM Cycle 25

Kindergarten-Why So Many Bones?

The students performed an inquiry investigation to help them understand why each of our fingers have 3 bones.  The students timed themselves putting pegs into a foam board in the first test, then taped their fingers to simulate having only 1 bone per finger and performed the same test.  The students learned that Scientist refers to a person who asks questions, makes observations, and investigates ideas in order to acquire knowledge and/or solve problems.
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1st Grade-Mystery Beads

In this inquiry experience, the students learned about the sun's Ultraviolet rays.  We discussed the ways the sun helps us, and ways we can protect ourselves from harmful UV rays.  The students received "mystery beads" that look white.  After testing the beads with heat and light, the beads remained white, but when exposed to UV light, the beads changed color.

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2nd Grade-Investigating Erosion (2)

While conducting an investigation using a sand model, the students observed and explained ways that wind, water, and natural disasters change the shape of the Earth.  In this lesson, students recorded their observations and conclusion to  the findings in their Launch Logs.

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3rd Grade-Seed Solutions

At the end of our last lesson, the students began growing pea plant seeds.  Using 3 generations of seeds, the students identified the color of the stems and determined the dominant (purple) and recessive (green) stem colors.  Using the Punnett Squares, students determined the parent plant genotypes and how these genotypes were passed on to the crossed plants creating the possibility of green and purple stems in the 3rd generation of plants.  The students created an Educreations (iPad app) presentation with photographs, text, and a voice-recorded explanation.

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4th Grade-Data Collection & Display (3)

Using the Tynker iPad App, the students are learning to code their first game by following step-by-step directions.  The students coded the characters in the game to respond in an effort to gather data.  Each time one of the characters touched another character, a count was displayed on the screen.

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5th Grade-Mystery at School (3)

There is an illness spreading at our fictional school.  The students learned about bacteria and viruses as they distinguished between communicable and noncommunicable diseases.  By reading through the patient information, the students found correlations between each student's symptoms and communicable diseases to diagnose the students.  In the next lesson, students will begin looking at connections between the students to determine Patient Zero and how the illness spread.