Full STEAM Ahead!

We have been moving and shaking in the Collaboratory over the past few weeks!  We even got to take some of our Collaboratory Cubs on an adventure to the NJ TECHSPO Conference where they had the opportunity to share the importance of STEAM education with an amazing audience that even included the NJ Commissioner of Education!  How cool is that?!?  It was certainly an exciting January!

In Pre-K, our youngest programmers are diving into the world of coding!  They worked on some whole-body coding activities, and now they are starting to explore one of our favorite coding friends:  Cody the Code-a-Pillar!

In kindergarten, our amazing engineers completed their bridge projects!  They did a great job applying everything that they learned about bridges to make their bridges sturdy and secure!  Every single bridge was able to hold at least 10 weights during testing, and some bridges held over 40 weights!  The students and I were so proud of their hard work!

In first grade, our optical engineers have been doing a little design work on the side!  The students designed, created, and built their own caves that will be used during their lighting systems project!  Now that the students have designed their own unique caves, they will have to imagine, plan, and build their own lighting systems to be placed inside of the caves so that all of their wonderful cave designs will be visible!  We love a good project that combines our love of making and engineering all at the same time!

In second grade, our environmental engineers have been hard at work creating their water filtration system designs based off their blueprints!  We can't wait to test them this week!

In third grade, our ocean engineers are comparing and contrasting the mass, volume, density, and buoyancy of model submersible parts.  Students will use these results to decide which parts they would like to include in their plans for their own submersible designs!

In fourth grade, our mechanical engineers are creating a variety of different windmill sails (made from a combination of different materials) so that they can test them to see which are the most effective at catching wind!  We can't wait to use our zip lines to test their designs!

We are looking forward to continuing to spread our LOVE of learning, making, designing, and creating throughout the month of February!

Happy New Year!

Our Collaboratory Cubs jumped right back into action after they returned from Winter Break!  I have a feeling that 2019 is going to be our best year yet!  Take a peek at what we have been doing:

Our Pre-K students celebrated the New Year in style by hosting our very own Ball Drop competition!  The students designed and created their own New Year's Balls and then tested them on a variety of different strings to see which ones would allow their balls to drop the fastest!  It's never too early to start talking about the connection between friction and speed, especially when we are getting some great fine motor skill practice!

Our kindergarten engineers have begun construction on their final bridge designs!  Each group of students imagined different design ideas, based off of what we learned about types of bridges, and then they planned a final blueprint for a design based off of their favorite idea.  They even had to shop in the Murro Market to purchase their building supplies.  Each group was given $10 to spend on their initial materials.  We certainly have some savvy shoppers who were looking to get the best bargain for their money!  The best part was the students' reactions when I told them that every group would get a tape dispenser and unlimited tape for FREE!  You would have thought they won the lottery by the way they reacted!  Too funny!

Our first grade optical engineers completed their final light investigation this week!  Students learned all about light intensity.  They traveled to various locations all around school to test each location with their light intensity meters.  Students will use their knowledge of light intensity to help them start to plan out their final lighting system designs next week!

Our second grade environmental engineers have been working on imagining different ideas for the final water filtration system designs, while keeping their budget in mind.  They have been discussing the pros and cons of each of their ideas as a group, and they have worked together to come up with plan to move one of their ideas forward.  The students are excited to finish up their blueprints for this design so that they can start creating their filters!

Our third grade ocean engineers explored the world of sonar technology this week, and it was easy for the students to see why this technology was a major improvement from sounding pole technology! The students are also working on some experiments to help them learn more about the different parts of a submersible.  Stay tuned for pictures from our experiments!

Our fourth grade students have really impressed me this week!  They came up with some really incredible ideas for new products to create for the STEAM Tank competition that we are entering!  Every student group designed a really creative prototype of their product, and they did an amazing job promoting their products to the OMS Student Judges during the Preliminary Competition.  The student judges voted on one winning group from each fourth grade class, and these groups will move on to film videos about their products to enter into the state contest.  Stay tuned for updates about our groups!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of January has in store for our Collaboratory Cubs!