STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 5

I missed the first couple of days this week, but these fantastic classes worked hard and caught up so quickly!

Visiting the lab this week:

Ms. Riffle’s Kinder: This group did a great job learning how to use the trackpad and navigate to their Code.org class! They got better and better at using the “Navigator/ Driver” strategy in their Pair Programming every day!

Ms. Flores’ 1^st grade:  These Monarch Heroes made amazing progress in their coding class! In just 3 days they finished half of the challenges in Code.org Course B! Expect great things from these Future Programmers!

Mr. Arzola’s 2^nd grade: These Recycling Heroes made all the pieces for the posters AND worked through a lot of their Code.org course! They learned how to make sure they are completely signed out of a program and their account before properly shutting down a computer.

Ms. Massey’s 3^rd grade & Mr. Torres’ 4^th grade make a lot of progress in their respective Code.org classes! They also learned to use the Padlet digital goal setting journal and the Classroom Q digital help feature.

Ms. Mulry’s 5^th grade: will be back for STEAM Lab activities next week – this week they completed their 1^st Genius Hour project.

Genius Hour: 4^th grade completed their “Poetree” after learning about the traditions and conventions of Haiku. They worked with hard to compress their ongoing tree research into the strictly controlled format. Their wrote their best work onto leaves and combined them with fall colored wax-paper/ crayon melt to make a display! 5^th grade selected a topic of personal interest and research it on BrainPOP and Britannica Online before creating an interactive display in Scratch connected with a Makey Makey. They did a fantastic job on these and invited Ms. Bailey & Mr. Cuevas to come see their products.

Eco-Schools: Our 2nd grade Recycling Team was smoothing out all the collection kinks and getting their system all worked out. Monarch Heroes distributed the Monarch Money jugs are getting ready to send their ambassador butterflies to Mexico! 4th grade started work on their tree research and will be getting the campus tree audit underway next week!

STEAM lab 2018-19 week 4

Students did a great job in their first visit to the STEAM lab this week!

The lab hosted:

Ms. Almanza’s Kindergarten, who learned how to use the laptops and were introduced to Code.org

Ms. Montoya’s 1^st grade, who finished their Monarch Hero wings and make great progress in their coding course

Ms. Lugo’s 2^nd grade, who started Course C in Code.org and made posters for recycling! Our 2^nd grade team sent classroom artists to make door reminders and start work on hallway posters made from reused materials. They kicked off schoolwide recycling this week!

Ms. Roesch’s 3^rd grade, Mr. Torres’ 4^th grade, and Ms. Guzman’s 5^th grade almost immediately mastered all the new lab procedures and tools! They jumped straight into Code.org, and found that the class assignment hyperdoc, goal setting padlet, and Classroom Q gave them a lot more control over their own learning experience!

During G/T Genius hour:

 Ms. Massey’s class wrapped up their Scratch projects, and started work on their display objects – I can’t wait to see their interactive research projects! Ms. Grimaldo & Ms. Martinez’s 4^th graders started work on their “Poetree”. They learned about Haiku and then wrote their own about trees on paper leaves. They ground up old crayons to make wax paper fall foliage to showcase their poems.

Looking forward to week 5!

STEAM Lab 2018-19 week 3

We had to cram 5 days of learning, making, collaborating, and problem solving into just four days again this week, but our Panthers were up to the challenge! 

This week the lab hosted:

Ms. Allende’s Kinder Green Heroes learned all about the problems they face keeping Piney Point green and started working on solutions. They learned to log in to their Code.org class with their partners and are already making their own algorithms!

Ms. Dipersio’s 1^st grade Monarch Heroes had a very busy week! In STEAM Lab they made their class butterfly for the Journey North Symbolic Migration to Mexico, worked on their wings, AND got started in Code.org Course B! They learned to navigate to their class, sign in with a partner, and are already making amazing progress!

Ms. Mosquera’s 2^nd grade Recycling Team completed their bin audit and got their classroom recycling assignments. They made posters for their hallways and got to work in Code.org Course C. They are old hands at Code.org, so they were ready for the new challenges! They love all the new puzzles and are pair programming like champions!

Ms. Guzman’s 3^rd grade, Ms. White’s 4^th grade, and Mr. Torres’ 5^th grade made fantastic progress in Code.org, learned to use the new digital goal setting tool - Padlet, and the new digital help tool – Classroom Q, and the new digital Exit Ticket via Scratch and Makey-Makey! 4^th grade even found time to paint with the Sphero robots!

Ms. Massey’s 3^rd grade G/T class completed step two of their PBL Scratch Pals project – creating their sprite and writing up their research as a conversation! Next week they’ll complete the programming and learn to upload it to online Scratch, use the backpack tool, and import their work into a remixed collaborative project. I can’t wait to see their final products!

STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 2

A short, but wonderfully productive week!

This week the STEAM Lab hosted:

Ms. Hernandez’s Green Heroes, who started learning their song, discussed their job as Green Heroes, learned about algorithms, started their Code.org coding course.

Ms. Brown’s Monarch Heroes, who learned their theme song and started their work learning about the endangered Monarch butterfly and what they can do to help! They mastered navigating to their own coding class, logging in as a team, and learned about creating algorithms to solve problems.

Ms. Ballentine’s 2^nd grade set up their new coding class accounts and learned about using loops in their algorithms.

All three groups had a fantastic time with Free Build Friday!

Ms. Mallona’s 3^rd grade, Ms. Reilly’s 4^th grade made the most of the short week, setting up Code.org and Scratch accounts. They did a great job communicating during the pair programming and turning the Scratch project into collaboration, rather than an individual project!

Mr. Cruz’s 5^th grade completed several levels in their new Code.org course and did a great job transitioning to pair programming!

This week we had our first G/T Lab sessions! Ms. Massey’s 3^rd grade group started work on a new project called Scratch Pals – it is going to be a kind of digital pen pals/ coding community where students can exchange projects and learn from each other! Ms. Grimaldo & Ms. Martinez’s classes are forming out No Place For Hate coalition and have made an amazing start on our kick-off event planning!

Next week is also a four-day week for students, so relax and enjoy your long weekend!

STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 1

What an outstanding start to the school year! Classes dove right into work, setting up their Code.org accounts and learning pair programming on day 1!

This week the STEAM lab hosted:

Ms. Colmenero’s Kindergarten – who did a great job learning so many new things! They learned their passwords, how to use the track pad on the laptops, how to navigate to their coding course, and how to create algorithms for a range of simple tasks.

Ms. Leal’s 1^st grade and Ms. James’ 2^nd grade, who were mostly Panther veterans and were ready for new challenges! They created algorithms to solve puzzles and also started using loops to simplify their code.

All three classes definitely earned Free Build Friday!

Ms. Noell’s 3^rd grade, Ms. Lee’s 4^th grade, and Ms. Purvey’s 5^th grade, whoalso set up their new Code.org accounts. What’s new for these groups was the new Padlet goals and reflections process and uploading and sharing their Scratch projects to a studio.

These 3 grade levels loved seeing everyone’s projects during Friday’s digital Gallery Walk.

Have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day!