2019-20 STEAM Lab week 15

Two days of testing, our 6^th annual Hour of Code event, and then back to the STEAM Lab! Thursday and Friday didn’t give us much time, but students dove right in and started creating.

It is very important to me that we identify the unique needs of each of our 1200+ students at Piney Point so we can make sure they receive the appropriate supports, but I am glad to be done with the G/T screening for this year!

Kinder and 1^st enjoyed a “snow day” and a Free Build day. They learned about the water cycle and snowflakes, then created their own blizzard with coffee filters and scissors.

2^nd – 5^th all learned about the unique properties of snowflakes with BrainPOP and Wonderopolis, but then went in different directions for the products. 2^nd & 4^th created personal wintry variations to the Scratch “Catch Game” and then made Makey Makey controllers to play their games. 2nd grade also filmed clips from the Underwater Circus project with Ringmasters Rachel Carson, Sylvia Earle, Jacques Cousteau, and Eugenie Clark.

3^rd grade went with musical snowflakes! They started with a game in mind, but then had their interactive snowflakes make sounds instead.

5^th grade created digital instruments that they played with Makey Makey boards. 

Both 3^rd and 5^th opted for a Free Build Friday featuring K’Nex and LEGO.

Wednesday we had our annual (6 hours of) Hour of Code! It was a smashing success thanks to the efforts of the whole ancillary team and Ms. Belmarez, but especially due to Mr. Contreras! Every year he collects the 60+ devices, chargers, and peripherals needed, tests them all and sets everything up in the gym and library as well as checking that everything is operational in both labs.

Next week will be a short one again, but I am sure that we will fill our 3 days with awesome learning adventures and creativity!

2019-20 STEAM Lab week 14

Another week of testing, but relieved by some really fantastic Arts Integration experiences and opportunities for students to showcase their learning!

Monday and Tuesday brought our marvelous arts partner, Da Camera, to 5^th grade for the always engaging “Friendly Debate”! Students were presented with a wealth of facts and opinions about the clarinet and the bass from some (perhaps not wholly unbiased!) experts. They looked, listened, took notes, and the wrote up their own persuasive pieces advocating for their choice of best instrument!

Tuesday morning was our first G/T Expo for 2019-20! Students from all our G/T classes 1^st-5^th presented their first semester research products. There was a wonderful range of subject matter and projects on display!

1^st graders from Ms. Montoya and Ms. Thormodsgaard took us on a trip to the zoo – each child was the zookeeper for an animal of their own choice and had through research, art, map making, and writing created a mini-book of all they had learned. They shared their animal’s physical characteristics, life cycle, diet, and habitat.

Ms. Thompson’s 2^nd graders treated us to an underwater circus! Led by ring-masters Sylvia Earle, Jacques Cousteau, and Rachel Carson we saw a wide array of sea-life in the ring and learned facts about their specific marine habitat, role in the food chain, and more! Their play was very popular, and everyone was impressed with the paintings they had done of their creatures.

Ms. Lugo and Ms. Mosquera’s 2^nd graders had drawn on their past history as Monarch Heroes and branched out to research other local butterflies! They created research logs with facts about nectar and host plants for their species, maps of their range, and art work to accurately represent the physical appearance of their butterfly. Each student chose either an interactive Scratch project, a green-screen mini-documentary, or a PowerPoint presentation to share their work.

Ms. Ballentine’s 3^rd graders researched inventors and wrote either a mini biography and bound it as a book, created a PowerPoint presentation, or made a model of their inventor from recycled materials to share their research.

Mr. Briceno and Ms. Mallona’s 3^rd graders collaborated on a group project about properties of matter. They had done a good bit of research on the various types of attributes that describe object and created a mystery box for visitors to explore and try to determine what was inside based purely on tactile observations!

Ms. Alonzo and Ms. Lee’s 4^th graders extended their recent class examination of poetry, poetic devices, and personal expression. They created personal poetry anthologies and treated visitors to their tables to readings of their work with explanations about the devices and styles they used.

Ms. Alanis and Ms. Martinez’s 4^th grade G/T students did biography projects, researching their individual subject sand creating models of their subjects.

Ms. Mulry and Ms. Limon’s 5^th graders selected any topic of personal interest and created a presentation to share their learning on that topic. These presentations were a big hit! They covered subjects as diverse as black holes and chocolate, jaguars and coffee!

Tuesday afternoon we held not one, but TWO spelling bees!

Our first ever Junior Bee was a success!

After that we held our campus official bee, except our spellers were too good and we ran out of time to finish! We had to come back Wednesday afternoon for a couple more rounds!

Thursday saw Kindergarten at The Hobby Center for another of their Discovery Series performances.

Students (and teachers!) enjoyed a wonderful performance of Peter and the Wolf. Our teachers are strong advocates for the importance of arts experiences in the development of the whole child. We are so grateful for the support we receive from Houston’s incredible arts community to help us make these opportunities available to our students!

Testing is almost over! Next week we hold our 6^th annual Hour of Code!