2019-20 STEAM Lab week 22

A great week of extra-special learning opportunities!

Three amazing Skype-a-Scientist sessions took place this week! On Monday, Ms. Mallona’s 3rd grade class met Ms. Jasmin Graham, MarSci-LACE Project Coordinator at Mote Marine Laboratory. She has participated in some remarkable projects related to ocean acidification as well as her primary field of study, cartilaginous fishes – especially sharks and rays. She also Skyped with Ms. Lee’s & Ms. Martinez’s 4^th graders. The introductory materials she shared included some fantastic footage of a saw-tooth ray pupping!

Continuing the marine science theme, Ms. Thompson’s 2^nd graders Skyped with Ms. Megan Howson on Thursday. She is based at the University of Miami and specialized in marine mammal communication. The students were amazed to learn about the work she is involved in and had lots of questions. She shared some of the recordings of dolphins and whales she has collected as part of her field work which was a big hit!

We are so grateful to the Skype-A-Scientist program for making this experience available and these two remarkable women for generously sharing their time and knowledge. I can vouch for the successful creation of 75 new, impassioned ocean advocates!

Digital Making club met on Tuesday and are making marvelous progress with their second unit projects! 2^nd grade divided the labor and Nabaa is writing the scripts, Damian is creating the Ozobot course, while Sherlyn, and Penelope are the art directors of their dramatic Robo-Retell of Little Red Riding Hood! 3^rd grade is hard at work on their Scratch + Makey Makey Interactive Stories. Books have been finished and animation is well underway! I hope we can share these completed projects next week! 4^th and 5^th grade are experimenting with making and programing the LEGO WeDo 1 with offline Scratch 2.

The regularly scheduled classes handled the scrambled schedule splendidly and were still able to complete their Robo Retell and making projects! Everyone reconnected with their Code.org course and many students are on track to graduate next term!

Ms. Caro’s kinder delivered a very spirited Bee Bot Robo-Retell of PD Eastman’s classic Are You My Mother?

While Ms. Pham’s 1^st grade Eco-Schools USA Monarch Heroes impressed with their rendition of verse two of the Monarch Song! Ms. Greenhouse’s 2^nd grade did a great job constructing and decorating their Da Camera Landfill Harmonic Music Encounter inspired reused can cuicas. 

Third through fifth grade researched their science topics in BrainPOP and learned to create coded tracks to have the Ozobots help retell the science stories they learned.

And of course, what would a week in the STEAM Lab be without a little Free Build time?

Our Wrap-Around specialist, Ms. Argueta, forged a partnership for Piney Point with Common Threads. They have a nutrition program being delivered in partnership with our awesome PE teachers, Ms. Ryan and Mr. Keahey. As an adjunct to their work and an implementation for our Eco-Schools USA and Fuel Up to Play 60 Healthy Living initiatives, they are helping us install a Guacamole Garden! Ms. Ballentine’s 3^rd grade class are the lead partners on this activity and have already taken the measurements, drafted a garden plan, and calculated our material needs. Mr. Keahey has been making garden beds for us by reusing old fence sections. He came out this Saturday with PTO president, Ms. Bustos, a volunteer, and myself to work on the new beds. 

Ms. Sharon – our Common Threads liaison, brought us our first set of donated plants Thursday. We are so excited about our new garden project!