What Are Our Sea Turtles Up To?

As we mentioned in the beginning of the year, The Green STEM Club has adopted two loggerhead sea turtles. The fourth and fifth grade sea turtle is Pirate Patty. Pirate Patty had been hanging around the southern Florida coast in the first half of the year, but she has been on the move! Her last tracked location shows Pirate Patty was heading toward the Bahamas! Do you think she will go on land?

The second and third grade turtle is named Peach. Peach has been hanging out in the same location, close to our coastline, over the past few months. However, during the holidays, Peach started heading south, further into the Gulf of Mexico. Her last tracked location, though, shows her right back in her regular habitat, where she had been hanging out the past few months. Why do you think she moved so much during the holidays? Why do you think she decided to travel back north, to the same spot she had been hanging out before the break?

To keep track of our turtles, visit http://www.conserveturtles.org/satelliteturtles.php

First STEM Meeting of 2013

The second and third grade STEM Club members kicked off the New Year by constructing catapults! Mrs. Owen handed each group a wire hanger, spoon, rubber bands, and some marshmallows. It was then up to the STEM Club members to try to figure out how to construct a catapult that would launch a marshmallow the farthest distance across the room. Not an easy task! Here are some designs.

After testing their own designs, Mrs. Owen showed the club a design she learned at a workshop over the summer. The groups made models after Mrs. Owen's design, and tested their catapults again to see if their distance improved, or if their original designs faired better. We then had a marshmallow chunking contest using our catapults, where each group faced off against one another.

Cell Party!

At our last December meeting, our second and third grade group and fourth and fifth grade group combined forces to learn all about cells! We made cell cookies to help us understand the parts of a cell. Once your cell cookie was made and your paper was complete, you got to participate in other goodies provided by our STEM Club parents.

Thank you so much to all of you who provided snacks and drinks for that day. We appreciate it!

Cell cookie ingredients!

Completed cell cookie!

Towers

While the second and third grade students were busy building bridges, our fourth and fifth grade friends were building towers with marshmallows and spaghetti noodles! Check out their creations!