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Monday, September 27, 2021

STEAM Lab 21-22 week 5

 A great week in STEAM Lab! Ms. Nesmith, Ms. Santana, Mr. Arzola, Ms. Kale, Ms. Miranda, and Ms. Mulry's classes were here and it was 5 days of Code.org & Scratch coding, Eco-Schools Green Hero/ Monarch Hero/ Hero Helper work, investigations into the sun, play rehearsals and performances, GeoInquiry observations and developing of good questions, and some Free Build Friday art/ electricity/ bulding!


Sunday, September 19, 2021

STEAM Lab 21-22 week 4

A short week curtailed even more by Hurricane Nicholas! Still, in two days Ms. Almanza, Ms. Montoya, Ms. Arriola, Mr. Torres, Mr. Fakhreddine, and Mr. Willman's classes put in some excellent work!


Ms. Almanza's Kinder weren't able to start their Green Hero work due to the weather, but they did make an excellent start on their Code.org course.
Ms. Montoya's Monarch Heroes didn't get to start Code.org , but they somehow managed to learn the Monarch Song, the stages of the life cycle and to identify the 5 most common butterflies in the habitat to earn their wings!


Ms. Arriola's class made a lot of progress in their Code.org course and classes in 3rd-5th grade explored Scratch - especially the sound library and editing tools!

5th grade GT staged our first performance of the year with their Constitution Day celebration.

The weather shut down any chance of our sun activities this week, so we will try again when these classes return to the lab!

Saturday, September 11, 2021

STEAM Lab 21-22 week 3

 Coding, and Science, and Art, Oh my!


Another set of awesome classes doing excellent work made the short week fly by. Ms. Allende, Ms. Nicholson, Ms. Mosquera, Ms. Reilly, Mr. Torres, and Ms. Pena's classes were in the lab this week. K-2 got acquainted with Code.org while 3-5 let their imaginations run wild coding in Scratch. 

All classes went out to do the sun investigations: sun print, shadow clock and a comparison of temperatures in the shade vs. the direct sunlight. Students were shocked how very dramatic the difference was! When we reviewed all our results the next day we acted out the rotation and revolution of the earth as well. 

Green Heroes completed their first campus clean-up and 4th grade Hero Helpers did all their data collection and calculations; Monarch Heroes toured the habitats, learned the Monarch Song, the life cycle, and to identify the 5 most common butterflies in our area! 4th and 5th grade Hero Helpers stepped in to assist all 8 Monarch Hero classes with their Monarch Money envelopes. Hopefully, cooler temperatures will allow these Helpers to get outside and assist in the habitats as well.

GT classes have been hard at work preparing for their various performances. 5th grade is staging a mini-show for Constitution Day, 4th grade finished the props and has their lines memorized, so just a few more touches to the set are required. Second grade is in full rehearsal and can't wait to take the stage. First and 3rd grade won't be far behind! GT finished the week with a fantastic guest speaker, Ms. Lily Dove, a polar oceanographer from CalTech. She sent us an  experiment to do beforehand that was an excellent review of mixtures, solutions, and density as well as a great introduction to her work on sea ice changes.

Next week is only 3 days, but I am sure our Panthers will accomplish all sorts of amazing things!


Monday, September 6, 2021

STEAM Lab 21-22 week 2

Another week packed with fantastic student effort!


This week Ms. Hernandez, Ms. Brown, Ms. Giron, Ms. Mallona, Ms. White, and Mr. Cruz's classes were in the lab. The K-2 settled into their Code.org courses while 3rd-5th were introduced to Scratch.

All classes participated in this rotation's sun themed activities - making sun prints and a solar clock. 4th and 5th graders also visited Nasa Space Place to investigate the solar system and created images of their favorite planets for our mini reused material planetarium.

Ms. Hernandez's Green Heroes and their 4th grade Hero Helpers from Ms. White's class completed their first campus clean-up and data collection activity and Ms. Brown's Monarch Heroes earned their wings by learning to recognize common butterflies in the habitat and to sing the Monarch Song. Unfortunately, it was still far too hot to take any other classes to start their Eco-Schools' roles - here is hoping next week brings a break in the heat!