Today they discussed more properties. First Mrs. P. had them list properties of humans. Then she brought out a tray of cookies and told each child to come pick one out of the three different flavors. The three choices were chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia and double chocolate chip. After each student had a cookie, she told them each to go to a table with everyone else with the same flavor of cookie. She then told them that they are scientists from different countries and they all had to decide on common properties that could be agreed upon by everyone at their table. I sat at the table with the white chocolate macadamia cookies. I was trying to help assist them come up with properties for their cookies. Most of them tried listing "delicious" as one of the properties and I had to explain to them that just because the cookie tasted good to them, does not mean it tastes good to everyone. After coming up with a list of properties for our cookie, Mrs. P. had all the children read off their lists to find similarities between them. This way they figured out what properties would be for a cookie in general. After accomplishing this, we were all allowed to eat our cookies. It was very tasty and I wish I could have had more LOL. Next, Mrs. P. told the scientists that their friend was stuck on Planet Oobleck and they had to create something that would float on Oobleck in order to rescue them. The kids got into groups and each created their own spaceship that they thought would float on Oobleck. Each one was different in their own unique way. Some were tall, some were wide, some were thin. Some of them failed the challenge, while others succeeded. It was fun watching all the groups test theirs out.
Today when we arrived at Tully, the children were watching a video about Mars. It was pretty interesting learning about the Mars Rover and how it works. After the video, they learned about properties. They learned that to determine properties it is useful to use the five senses. They listed some properties of Oobleck and then they got to play with it! The Oobleck was really fun and interesting to play with because when sitting in the container it was a liquid, but after squeezing it it became a solid. Oobleck is made from cornstarch and water, it was very simple to make. The cornstarch made it very messy though so I had to be careful not to get it on my clothes, even though it would probably come out. Mrs. P. also told me you can add food coloring to the Oobleck to change its color, but then it would stain hands so she decided not to. The children really enjoyed playing with the Oobleck and getting their hands messy!
Earlier in the week, Mrs. P. requested if anyone would like to prepare and present a lesson on skyscrapers and/or Engineers. Since I'm thriving to be a teacher in the future, I decided to take this initiative and prepare a lesson. I also remembered from working with the group of Vincent and Anthony last week for the card tower project, they informed me that they like WarHead candies. Since it is Valentine's Day, I asked Mrs. P. her permission and brought in enough candies for each student. When we arrived at Tully, Mrs. Podsiedlik was showing the students videos to make the connection to the 1930's building 'wars' in NYC, which was the race to build the tallest skyscraper. The key ideas she made were that skyscrapers came about because of the development of steel/iron as a building material and the growing populations and demand for real-estate in urban centers such as NYC. If you can build sideways you build up. She also taught them a little about the history of the Great Depression and how the building of skyscrapers in NYC put people back to work in a very tough economic time in our country's history. The video links Mrs. P. showed are: http://video.answers.com/explore-the-history-behind-the-chrysler-building-517229538 http://www.history.com/videos/empire-state-building-defies-depression#empire-state-building-defies-depression She also showed a ppt with some images as well.
I did my presentation on Amazing Skyscrapers using a computer with Internet access and brought in one copy of Take-Home Activity Sheet: Careers in Engineering and Architecture for each student. First, I helped the students brainstorm the names of some famous skyscrapers. They were familiar with the Empire State Building in New York City. We had a brief discussion about why people build such giant buildings. For example, they are efficient in crowded cities because they provide maximum office or living space while taking up a small amount of ground. They have also become cultural or industrial icons and a source of pride for the city in which they are found. I had the class then answer certain questions about the skyscraper that we found on Web sites with good sources of information about the building. After asking them questions, I also went over some useful vocabulary. I think my presentation went great and the kids loved the candy. Rebecca was the only other person to prepare a lesson as well. She made an interesting poster with examples of skyscrapers on it. I really enjoyed getting up in front of the class and teaching them. I am very grateful for that opportunity and hope to be able to do more lesson planning.
After the candy and the presentation the children designed and created their own bottle rockets. Then we all traveled down the hall to the gym to test them out using an air pump to see which one traveled the farthest. Connor's ended up going pretty far, almost to the other side of the gym. After the first trial, we returned to the classroom so the kids could make any modifications to their rockets in order to help it go farther. We spent the remainder of our time in the gym trying out the bottle rockets for a second time. Some improved while others became worse and some didn't change at all. Upon our return to the classroom, Mrs. Podsiedlik said to dress casual for next week as the children will be playing with Oobleck. I have never heard of this before so I'm excited to see what it's all about! Today was my first day as a volunteer tutor/mentor with the Tully Elementary School's After-School Program. I was very eager on the half hour ride there. Tully Elementary School is a cute school with labeled hallways and is located next to the high school. However, Tully is in a poor area. I never would have suspected as it's bigger than the elementary school I attended and no one seemed as if they were in poverty. First, I met all the children who attend the TREP Program on Thursdays. They are all 5th and 6th graders and are adorable! At first, I couldn't believe that they're that old because when I first got there I thought they were younger. I enjoyed watching them go around a circle, starting with Connor, stating their name, grade and something about his or herself. There wasn't very many of them, only eleven kids and there were only two girls, Maggie and Grace. Maggie looks like a girl I used to know and I like Grace because that's my cousin's name. After meeting everyone Ms. Podsiedlik, who directs the program, discussed engineers and their importance in society. She introduced the engineering process model we will be exploring. The Engineering Design Process involves The Goal and 5 basic steps: Ask → Imagine → Plan → Create → Improve. Keeping this in mind, Ms. P. explained that today's challenge is a simple design challenge that is accessible to children of all ages. They worked with a partner to create a card tower. This was a good introduction to fun in creativity and problem solving.
I was assigned to work with the groups to facilitate the challenge activity. The children worked with a partner to build a tower out of playing cards and tape. Each pair got one roll of tape and one deck of cards. They were instructed to build a card tower as tall as they could, that can stand independently, using only the materials they had. They were told to plan first (which I noticed was the hardest part for them, I needed to remind them to think before acting) and then build, adjusting their planning as necessary. I worked with Anthony and Vincent's group. I really enjoyed watching them plan and build. I even got to know them a little better, talking about our favorite movies, candies, etc. The boys were both very funny, Vincent is a comical character. The building process lasted about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Following the challenge they compared designs and reflected upon how they used the engineering design process to arrive at their creation. My group's tower didn't quite work out. The girls, Maggie and Grace's tower turned out to be the tallest. They named their tower "Magrace" which I thought was funny since it's both of their names combined. At 5 pm they packed up to go home. The challenge for me was to not help them build or problem solve. I could not intercede in the process. The groups needed to work out the challenges on their own. No suggestion making was allowed, only questioning. I asked questions such as, What could you do to make your structure stronger and more stable so it doesn't tip over? What isn't working with your tower? How can you change something to fix that? It was pretty cool observing the kids build their towers and how they fixed it when things didn't quite work the way they thought they would. I had a great first experience and I can't wait to continue to grow as a tutor/mentor. I'm looking forward to working with Mary and the children this semester in the following weeks to come! |
Julia MooreMy blog helps me to blend readings with my community project experiences. My reflections are based in part on my frequent and ongoing service-learning updates. Archives |