Collaboratory Corner

Happy New Year!

The new year is off to an exciting start!  Although we had some interesting weather events that shortened our first week back, this past week we were full steam ahead!  Take a peek at what each grade level has been doing:

In Pre-School, our students are learning about different modes of transportation, so they created planes, trains, boats, and cars in our Collaboratory MakerSpace! They even used different recycled boxes as their bases to connect to a story they read with Mrs. Valente about using your imagination to redesign uses for boxes!

In kindergarten, students continued working on their Engineering is Elementary unit titled "Designing Bridges".  They used what they learned about forces on bridges to test out a variety of bridge designs, using different materials, to see which were the most effective! 

In first grade, our students took a break from exploring lighting systems (because of the delayed opening schedule), and they tackled an important and relevant challenge:  How might we help people safely get around on snowy and icy days?  Some amazing ideas included heated boots that melted snow as you walked, a heated snow vacuum, and hovercraft boots!  I loved being able to watch our students tackle empathy-driven, real-world problems and come up with such creative solutions!

In second grade, our students continued with their Engineering is Elementary unit titled "Designing Water Filters" by thinking like environmental engineers!  They brainstormed possible solutions to problems that currently exist in our environment.  They even researched some projects that environmental engineers are working on around the world right now!

In third grade, our students began their Engineering is Elementary unit titled "Designing Submersibles".  We began by reading the first part of our empathy-focused story called "Despina Makes a Splash", and then we did some research on different submersible designs.  We can't wait to continue our journey into the world of ocean engineering!

In fourth grade, our students continued working on their Engineering is Elementary unit titled "Designing Windmills" by testing different sail designs and materials on our wind-powered "test track"!

We are looking forward to what the rest of 2018 has in store for us!