STEAM Cycle 30

Kindergarten-Meet ScratchJr 1

Using ScratchJr (a programming tool on the iPad), the students learned how to create their own animations.  They had to think about and plan how they wanted their animation to look and how their characters were going to act.

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1st Grade-Free STEAM

We finalized our unit on Light: Observing the Sun, Moon, and Stars, so we took a break this cycle to explore STEAM related websites.

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2nd Grade-Catch Up

The students had time to complete any unfinished work toward our unit about the changing Earth.  As students finished, they were encouraged to practice their typing skills through online games linked on the STEAM Studio website.

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3rd Grade-Story Factory

After reviewing nouns, adjectives, and verbs, the students were divided into teams.  Each team was given a set of instructions that they were to follow when given a cue.  The first team started the factory by delivering messages to the other teams.  One team was in charge of responding to the messages with nouns, one with adjectives, and the other with verbs.  As the "story factory" ran, each team was delivering and sending messages to the final team who inserted these parts of speech into a story.  At the end of the program, the final team had a "Mad Libs"-like story to share with the class.  Using the story factory as a model, the students were able to see how computer scientists break big problems into subproblems and ways that teamwork can support problem solving.  This was the first computer science lesson in our unit "Programming Patterns."

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4th Grade-Reaction Test 2

​Using the Tynker app, the students followed step-by-step directions to create a game that allowed the player to test their reaction time.  The students chose a background and actors that would randomly move around the screen.  Each time the player tapped the character, a score would be recorded with a reaction time (fast, medium, slow) displayed at the end of the game.

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5A & 5B-Introduction to Robots

To begin our new Robotics and Automation unit, the students explored different types of robots using nonfiction books.  After choosing a robot, they answered a Google questionnaire and uploaded a drawing of the robot. 

As we have worked through this first year of STEAM, we spent a good deal of time considering curriculum.  We made the leap during our 2nd trimester to adopt Project Lead the Way.  Because we began using PLTW into the school year, it just hasn't been possible to do all of the units.   The limitation with this unit is the expense of robotics kits.  We were able to purchase robotics kits for two 5th grade classes.  Next year we will be able to stagger the use of the kits so that all of the 5th graders will have the opportunity to use them, but time is a constraint this year.  I know our 5C & 5D students are disappointed that they won't be using the kits this year, but it is important to us that the students (and us as teachers) get as much experience as we can with each unit.  

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5C & 5D-Catch Up

We spent time this cycle working through any unfinished assignments before we begin our next unit which focuses on computer science.