Week 23 Wrap-Up

This Valentine's week was full of STEM sweetness! The lab hosted: Ms. Colmenero's Kindergarten, Ms. Leal's 1st grade, Ms. Mehaffey's 2nd grade, Mr. Briceno's 3rd grade, Ms. Lee's 4th grade, and Ms. Hatchell's 5th grade.
stemwk23 from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.

Our Kinder Eco-Schools Green Heroes were very busy with their responsibilities as Wrigley's Litter Less Ambassadors! They filmed a PSA (public service announcement), made more indoor posters, and outdoor poster, and did their campus clean-up!


ColmeneroLitterLess from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.

In the STEM lab they were hard at work on their Code.org course. We are using all our problem solving, communication, and collaboration skills to work through the lessons on iterations! They have done such great work this week that they earned a Free Build Friday!

Ms. Leal's class is almost always finishing up Monarch Heroes or other G/T projects when they come to STEM lab! This week they dug in and played catch up on their coding and almost everyone is only 20-30 puzzles away from completing all of Code.org Course I. Great job!

2nd -5th grade spent Monday and Tuesday making virtual Valentines in Scratch. This activity was extremely popular and we all learned a lot! I, for example, had no idea that you could produce so many unique shades of pink!

On Wednesday 2nd - 5th took a Code.org break and worked through their preferred Hour of Code tutorial.

2nd moved on to a Scratch lesson about modifying and personalizing sprites, while 3rd and 4th completed a challenge designed to introduce them to the possibilities of the "looks" blocks.

5th grade completed their reused materials mini milk carton automata challenge. As an Eco-School we take our conservation responsibilities seriously! In STEM lab the vast majority of physical projects are made with reusable (LEGO, K'Nex, Lakeshore building sets, wooden blocks) pieces or reused materials. These automata are made from (carefully washed!) used materials such as milk cartons, straws, old class folders, and cardboard scraps.

I'm looking forward to next week's accomplishments!