Week 24 Wrap-Up

This was a short week due to the early dismissal day on Wednesday, but a very productive one! The STEM lab hosted Ms. Hernandez's kindergarten, Ms, Brown's 1st grade, Ms. Mosquera's 2nd grade, Ms. Guzman's 3rd grade, Ms. Aguilera's 4th grade, and Mr. Torres' 5th grade.

stemwk24 from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.
Ms. Hernandez's Eco-Schools Green Heroes created a wonderful PSA this week. They met (via YouTube!) an icon of my childhood, Woodsy the Owl! We borrowed his theme song for the video and their new poster series! They choose Ms. Brown's 1st grade to be their buddy class to do their campus clean-up and help spread the word about their anti-littering activities.


hernandez from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.

In the STEM lab they worked very hard on their Code.org course and are really doing well!

Ms. Brown's class made excellent progress in Code.org this week! Everyone who had finished with Stage 14 got to work with the BeeBots. They all did such a good job, that the class was able to enjoy a Free Build Friday also!

2nd-4th grade completed two Scratch challenges - one where they created a project using every on of the "looks" blocks and another where they experimented with customizing sprites and creating additional costumes.

5th grade spent their STEM lab week working through each phase of the design process to create their mini milk carton automata

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!

Week 22 Wrap-Up

This week the STEM lab hosted:Ms. Bell's kindergarten, Ms. Flores' 1st grade, Ms. Lugo's 2nd grade, Ms. Ancona's 3rd, Ms. Giron's 4th grade, and Ms. Limon's 5th grade. These students accomplished a lot in just 5 days!

stemlabwk22 from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.


Our Kinder Eco-Schools Green Heroes successfully launched the next phase of their campaign as Wrigley's Litter Less Ambassadors! They created three more inside posters, our first outdoor sign, and a video all as part of ramping up our public awareness campaign! They also recruited a buddy class to do a campus clean-up! All of these activities will help to educate our whole campus community and help keep Piney Point clean and green! See their video:


BellLitterLess from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.


I am so proud of how much they are taking their Green Hero status to heart! Jayden went home and told his mom all about being a Litter Less Ambassador and insisted that they clean-up around their neighborhood!

1st grade and Kindergarten continue to work there way through the Code.org Course I challenges in the lab. Students are mastering valuable skills such as effective collaboration and communication in addition to the foundations of computer programming.

2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade worked through a series of lessons designed to teach mastery of the "looks" and "motion" blocks in Scratch this week and finished up by applying their new skills to the creation of virtual Valentines!

Ms. Limon's 5th grade had their hands full! Since I was out of town for a training on their last visit to the lab they needed to design, build, and host their Cardboard Challenge Arcade. They successfully whipped through the process and invited Ms. Flores' students to come play. Next they turned their attention to creating their mini milk carton automata. This process was too rushed and while almost everyone got the moving parts assembled only a few people managed to get their decorative pieces finished to their satisfaction. However, everyone was a very good sport about it and I plan to set aside a day to finish them up nicely on their next visit to the lab.

Week 21 Wrap-Up

Thanks to Ms. Allende’s Kindergarten, Ms. Pesce’s 1^st grade, Ms. Keahey’s 2^nd grade, Ms. Accavallo’s 3^rd grade, Ms. Welch’s 4^th grade and Ms. Cain’s 5^th grade for a fantastic week of making, coding, and problem solving!

STEMwk21 from Kimberly Boyce-Quentin on Vimeo.

Ms. Allende’s Eco-Schools/ Wrigley’s Litter Less Ambassadors did a fantastic job cleaning up the courtyard area in preparation for Volunteer Houston. They will constructing a new outdoor classroom for us! In the STEM lab they were learning about adding loops to their algorithms in Code.org Course I.

Ms. Pesce’s class is making fantastic progress in their Code.org class! Several students are only a couple of lessons away from completing Course I! Ms. Pesce has some brand new students and her experienced classroom leaders are doing a great job helping them get comfortable with the STEM lab!

2^nd  & 3^rd grade have been building a big multi-step project in Scratch this week. They imported a set of sprites and then had to create a few original ones, programmed each to change its appearance and move in different way. They then created a range of original backgrounds and added some interactive script. These projects were wonderfully diverse and creative! On Friday everyone made virtual Valentines!

4^th grade did a little of everything this week! They went to their Leader In Me jobs, did some programming in Scratch, worked on improving the gardens, played Think Fun logic games, and made virtual Valentines!

5^th grade were extremely successful with the mini milk carton automata. As Piney Point is an Eco-School we are very dedicated to reducing consumption, reusing whenever possible, and recycling whatever we can – especially in the MakerSpace! Students carefully cleaned up their milk cartons from lunch and we used them, straws from Sonic (carefully cleaned!), old folders (names and numbers redacted!), cereal boxes, and cardboard scraps to construct our gallery of automata. 

On Friday, the 2nd-5th grade classes created virtual Valentines in Scratch!