7th Grade just finished a week of working with cubelets. What are cubelets? Cubelets are magnetic blocks that can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires. You can build robots that drive around on a tabletop, respond to light, sound, and temperature, and have surprisingly lifelike behavior. Each day the students were given a different challenge and had to write down data and reflections into a robot journal. This week we are using Makey Makey an invention kit that can turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween. Ask about Banana Bongos! Noisy but fun.
Mrs. Ranney Our first projects are finished and everyone is getting a feel for what is expected of a project.
Six grade completed virtual online roller coasters and are now making paper roller coasters. See www.rollercoaster.com for video and photos of other schools projects. Seventh grade has been working on a robotic hand prototype in their Helping Hand project. All prototypes are finished now and we are working on a lab report that explains what the steps and thinking behind the project. Eighth grade completed diagramming a complete zoo and are now making a zoo enclosure for an animal that they researched. The Zoo Habitat Challenge will include making their enclosure in 3D on the computer and then making a model out of cardboard that is to scale. I am enjoying having the students work through the challenge and come up with such awesome designs and ideas. Thanks Diane Ranney For our first assignment students in all classes read an article of their choice and wrote a summary paragraph about safety. They also made posters about the safety rules they read about. After they presented their posters to the class, we got to know each other better by doing a KaHoot survey.
Next week, 6th graders will start a Roller Coaster Project, 7th grade will work on making a Prosthetic Hand, and 8th graders will explore zoo enclosures for their favorite animals in order to build one themselves. We are off to a good start with safety. I am looking forward to some more hands on activities. Mrs. Ranney Hello,
My name is Diane Ranney and I am the new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teacher. I am very excited to join the WBMS faculty. This is my 7th year of teaching Science and I have always incorporated STEM projects into all my classes. I have many projects planned for this semester and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have or if you have ideas for projects you would like to do in 2017. |