Truck Physics- Chemistry Expedition

 The same day as the Live Burn, the kids were given how a pumper truck works. We toured #27 by looking in all the compartments with Dave Reynolds explaining and fielding questions. One of the most interesting parts of this expedition has been to watch the kids learn how much learning and knowledge a firefighter or EMT must know.
 My phrase has been GOOOLLLLYYY GEEE! There sure is a lot to learn! The Golly Gee part is in big letters since we also focused this expedition on language--the 8 parts of speech and the origins of our English language. By knowing the root, suffix and prefix help them make sense of words that are newly met in content they are ready for.

Anyway--today we put the check list together for all the summaries that are being revised and on their way to final copy. There is one more comic to produce and go through the whole process, but the content we have covered has been covered!!

Reminders: Student Led Conferences are May 21-23 anytime after school; send info through the planner.

Dave Reynolds answering and  explaining and answering and explaining and answering and explaining.:)

In take and discharge

Kids with clipboards is a good thing! They all took notes so they could write up a summary of how the truck works. 

Turn Outs

Back in the classroom at Fire Station #2 revisiting all the info and answering more questions during out lunch.

Fire Extingushers++++++++

And once again...Thank you City of Moscow Volunteer Department!

Live Burn-Chemical Reaction- Fire

 The Moscow Fire Department, Dave Reynolds and Joe Williams have been so terrific to work with. This final day of field work was astounding... I say that because whenever you can get 25 fifth and sixth graders to be silent for minutes at a time, you know they are in deep thought.

 Watching the process of what firefighters do to learn about the chemical reaction of fire and how scary and real the work is, reminded the kids that there is a lot out there they need to know.

The Live Burn had three steps. Dave Reynolds and Joe Williams talked the kids through how a 'Burn' is created and the steps that would happen---the whole fire lasted ONLY 5 minutes! The kids saw how dangerous fire is even in the first minute. We talked about combustible materials and the four other firefighers showed the level of redundancy for safety that is part of the department.

This expedition, How Matter matters!, has been going really well.

Closing Robotics Case Study

Mr. Soule came for two days after the competition to debrief and reflect with the kids. The overall feeling of the class was that it was fun, but disappointing. The first thing we did was to watch the slideshow from the day and for each student to write the strengths and weaknesses from the experience. It was time for a general sharing and for them all to listen to the experiences of others. We had 4 teams in 4 different places all the time, so this helped them learn about how others competed.

On Thursday, each team presented their powerpoint so that Mr. Soule could provide more feedback and again for each team to see what the others had done. We talked about ways to improve and what they learned. After that, all the teams met to go over their scores and then all that went on the board for each to see and for us to talk about. We noticed trends, strengths and weaknesses. 

The Mars Rover Competition was such a valuable lesson in communication, planning and teamwork. It truly suited the learning of physics. The kids want to participate again.

 

Learning through Competition- Mars Rover Challenge

Kids started showing up ready to go at 7:30. There were 40 teams from around the state of Idaho competing at the Memorial Gym in Idaho. We had 4 teams competing in rock collecting, hill climbing, speed and blind test driving. The class was nervous because testing what they had made, they knew, explains a lot about how well they had prepared.

 Robo Rage, The Duds, Voyager, and Shamrocks all presented a power point and poster. These items needed to show the design process, pie chart of team participation, and strengths and weaknesses of their Mars Rover. The notebooks were evaluated as well. Each team had to explain how well they worked together during the presentation.  All the teams that presented talked about the need to 'not goof off' and how important clear and kind communication helps everyone.

Once again, Thank you Terry Soule and Amy Ball who provided the money for the four kits!! Plus  Mr. Soule came in twice a week to teach Physics and help problem solve with the rovers.