Today we continued to look at our materials: straw, bricks, cloth, and paper.  They were divided into groups and given different challenges.  They had to determine which materials would be the most effective for their task.  Then we looked at their ideas as a whole class and shared their thinking. 

Today for our STEM unit we got to pretend we were material engineers and look at properties of objects. We then looked at how if we changed materials how the new properties would affect the way the object worked. For example we talked about the properties of a spoon and we discussed what would be different if the spoon was made of paper, rock, or glass. We also talked about how some properties are important to how an object works and some are just for looks. For example we looked at a quilt. The weight of the material is important to if the blanket will keep you warm but the color is not. Here are the anchor charts of the class' thinking.

Then we continued with our jobs as material engineers. To we took 3 materials (brick, paper, and straw) and brainstormed their properties. Then we decided if they would be a good material to keep you warm based on their properties and had to defend our thinking with proof. Here is our work.

Today is our STEM lesson we analyzed materials that could possible be used to create walls here is an example of our thinking. We also brainstormed properties of a successful wall. 

Then we read the rest of the story Yi Min's Great Wall 

We also discussed the design process they used in book and filled in the engineering design process form to show the steps they went through.

Today we started working on our new STEM unit. Yi Min's Great Wall. We talked about what is a material engineer.  We read the story which is about a girl and a boy trying to build a wall to protect their garden at school. They used the design process to create mortar mixtures that held their wall together.

Today we had an Aluminum Foil Boat Building Challenge.  Their challenge was to build the strongest boat they could make using one sheet of aluminum foil?  Congratulations to 2 groups.

Today in science we completed our rock videos.  The scholars worked so hard on this project.  project
They were so creative with their songs and their videos.  I can't wait for you to see them. 
videos

Tomorrow is a big day for our rock star project.  We will be recording our dance sequence and our song so we can start making our rock videos.  Please help your student practice their song tonight so they are ready to sing with their group tomorrow.  Also some of the groups are wanting to wear certain outfits.  So if your student comes home with a request for clothing tomorrow that is why.