Engineering Excellence

It was very busy in the Collaboratory last week!  Take a look at some of our adventures!

Our Pre-School engineers had a big problem to solve this week: How might we help the Three Little Pigs build a safer house?  I was so impressed by their creativity in their designs!  We even tested the houses for durability using the "Wolf Wind" tester!

In kindergarten, we have been talking all about the life cycles of green technology and how paper can be considered a green technology since it can be recycled and used again and again.  Our discussion led us to using our own Collaboratory paper scraps and old magazines to begin to make our own recycled paper.  We even took a Ms. Frizzle-esque field trip to TES Headquarters where Mrs. O'Malley was able to provide us with even more paper scraps from the shredder to lighten up the color of our recycled paper mixture (since the shredded paper was mostly white and pink).  This way, the paper that we make will be a lighter color, which will make it easier to see what we write on it!  We can't wait to use our recycled paper to create our solar oven blueprints!  We are loving how we can use a green technology to help plan the creation of another green technology!

Many of our kindergarten students (and students from other grades as well) were able to help prepare our TES Rain Garden, too!

 Our first grade engineers discovered how to make magnets levitate all on their own through their research and experimentation.  They are almost ready to make their maglev systems!  The magnets have really "attracted" their interest (haha I couldn't resist!)!

In second grade, our environmental engineers tested out a variety of materials to see how well they might be able to remove oil from water.  Our testing results will help us imagine and create a plan for our big oil spill project that is coming up soon!

In third grade, our ocean engineers have created their submersible prototypes, and they are working hard on making improvements to their designs!  We can't wait to show off what their final designs look like and how they work!

Our fourth grade students have continued to read A Reminder for Emily to help them gain some background knowledge on electrical engineering!  We can't wait to start planning and creating our own alarm circuits!

We hope that you can stop by the Collaboratory during the Night of the Stars event on Thursday, May 17th to check out our students' awesome work!

Exciting Adventures

All of the hustle and bustle in the Collaboratory last week helped to create many lasting memories for our Collaboratory Cubs!  In the beginning of the week, we had a special guest come to visit from House Paws, which is an organization working to inspire and educate future vets.  They brought lots of their little friends with them, and our students really enjoyed spending time with the animals!

Our kindergarten engineers continued to explore solar thermal energy by creating solar print bookmarks using items from nature.

Our first graders finished their intro story for their "Designing Maglev Systems" unit this week.  In the story, Hikaru creates a cool way to use magnetic levitation and parachute technology to wow the customers at Azuki Toy Store.  Our students decided that if Hikaru can use a parachute to transport toys safely, then so can our firsties!  Therefore, our first graders completed the Piggy Parachute challenge where they had to safely transport toy pigs from the top of the slide to the ground.  Sometimes pigs really can fly!

In second grade, we continued with our "Cleaning Up an Oil Spill" intro story. In our intro story, Tehya learns more about how to clean up oil spills in her very own kitchen using cooking oil. Our second graders connected to the story by doing their own research using cooking oil. Students observed how oil moves in water and used a feather to mimic a duck moving in the water. Students saw how the oil got stuck on the feather and then used Dawn dish soap to clean the feather. The students were able to see first-hand how much time it takes to clean one feather, let alone one whole duck, who has over 11,000 feathers.

Our third graders used their blueprints to start to create and test their submersible designs.

Our fourth graders continued their journey into exploring electrical engineering, but since it was May 4th, we had to take a few minutes to celebrate Star Wars Day!  May the "Fourth" be with you!