Paper Airplanes Link

This is the link I used to show different airplane designs. I know many of our engineers were practicing at home last night. I even had a few new designs come through my classroom today! Keep up the good work!

http://www.funpaperairplanes.com

Learn to Write Code!

Attached is the link we will use at our next STEM Club meeting. Feel free to check it out ahead of time!

http://code.org/learn

2014-2015 STEM Club

Sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog! We have been up to some exciting things in STEM. Pictures are soon to come!

If you have been keeping up with our adventures, we have been doing a lot of science and engineering in our first few meetings. We built roller coasters our first meeting, and catapults our second meeting. We also watched some video on some real-life catapults, used in the annual "Punkin' Chunkin'" competition that takes place the day after Thanksgiving.

Last meeting, we learned about recycling and its importance. We began recycling for the school this past Tuesday, and will continue to do so every Tuesday from 8:00-8:25, weather permitting. We need all hands on deck, as there is a lot of ground to cover in that short length of time!

I receive a Kano Computer Kit today from Dr. Small. In December, we will begin focusing on technology, and learning how to write computer code, as well as build our own computer! I am working to secure some local guest speakers to tell us how they use writing code in their daily jobs, as well as a Skype lesson with some developers from Microsoft. We are going to be the most tech savvy kids around town!

Group Picture: St. Marks Field Trip

St. Marks Field Trip

We had a BLAST at St. Marks on Tuesday. We got to go out in the water and collect many different sea creatures and plants to observe and study. The most common animals we found were sea snails and hermit crabs, but a few groups found a puffer fish and a shrimp! Ms. Lori found a fiddler crab for us to observe. We learned it was a male from the one large claw it had. There were many tiny holes along the bank, and we learned that is where the fiddler crab lives! 

After exploring the water, we then got to explore the land. We went for a small hike along the St. Marks Trail. Each child got to wear a set of binoculars to help them look for animals that may be on the land, or out in the water. We saw many different species of birds, and were able to use our bird guide to identify each bird we saw. We also got to see an alligator swimming in the distance, as well as learn about different plant species that grow on the St. Marks Trail.

Field Trip Rescheduled

Parents,

Due to weather, we are not able to go to St. Marks today as planned. We have rescheduled the field trip for next Tuesday, May 6th. If you were signed up to chaperone, but can no longer make it, please let Mrs. Owen know ASAP. If you have any questions, please email me at owenc2@leonschools.net.

Field Trip Tomorrow

Parents,

We are monitoring the weather closely to determine whether or not we will be able to go to St. Marks tomorrow. Please still plan to send your child dressed for the field trip (with a change of clothes, as we will be wading out in the Apalachee Bay if we attend) and a packed lunch. 

If the weather is bad, we will reschedule the field trip. Dr. Small and I will make a final decision tomorrow morning. I will notify you via email and text message first thing.

If you have not yet signed up for our text alerts, please be sure to do so, as I will be using this communication method tomorrow in case you are unable to get to your email before 9:30. Just text @greenste to (352) 449-1340.

Comcast Cares Day

We had a great turn-out for our Comcast Cares Day. Our school looks beautiful! Some projects we completed were painting the Guidance Hallway and Conference Room, putting down new mulch on the Intermediate and Primary Playgrounds, yard trash clean-up, organizing the PE closet and Textbook Room, and finally, lots of gardening projects. If you haven't seen the front of the school, it looks amazing with all the new flowers.

Thank you to all the students and parents who came out on Saturday to help. It was a great community service opportunity, and I think our students really learned a lot from it!

Sustainable Tallahassee

At our April 8th meeting, Daniel Parker from Sustainable Tallahassee visited our club to continue our education on recycling and its importance. Sustainable Tallahassee is a local organization that works to bring awareness to the community about "going green", as well as collaborates with city and county officials on ways our city can be environmentally friendly.

Here are some pictures from his visit:

Circuits

Here are a few pictures from our circuit creation activity at our last meeting.

Electromagnets

I promised the students I would post this on the blog so they could try it out. Click on the link for directions on how to make an electromagnet (and remember: don't do this near an electrical outlet!)

http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/electromagnet.php

Josh Rockin' the Flower Pin

Josh came to school today wearing the flower pin he made at our meeting! It looks great!

Happy Friday!

Reducing Waste by Reusing

Ms. Carole Gentry, our tour guide from our field trip at the Solid Waste Facility, came to Springwood yesterday to show us how we can make crafts by reusing materials. Our first creation was an origami bookmark. These can be created from magazines, old papers, etc. You just need to cut the papers into square sheets before starting. Our second craft was an aluminum can flower pin. The cans were crushed and dye cut into different flower petals. We strung them all together using wire, and topped them off with a button. They turned out beautiful!