Building for the City of Ember

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Designing and Constructing our Devices

     So as seen in previous posts we are working in our current science and IB unit on the idea that innovations of today will affect our lives in the future.  We spent three days designing blueprints for our solution to a problem within the city of Ember.
     Today was the day they students go to finally build their devices.  They spent the first few minutes gathering supplies from our "trash heap", then it was off to work!  It was amazing to see them working so well together and the conversations about their devices were awesome.  While they were working I kept the rubric on the overhead so they could constantly refer to it through the design process.  One group discovered after building that they were actually below basic! Yikes!! So, they had to revise their design to meet the criteria listed.  The students will have 3 days to build and test before they present on Friday.  I can't wait to see how some of their ideas pan out!
Check out the video of our engineers!

Saving the City of Ember

      I'm am so excited to finally get to this summative assessment for our unit of inquiry into energy- specifically how innovations of today will affect our lives in the future.
   
     Yesterday we thought back to the story of Ember and came up with a list of problems they had in the city, there were many.  We had to narrow the list down to what we thought we could engineer in the classroom, with limited materials as could be found in the city of Ember.  We arrived to three problems:
* Lack of a mail system- they rely on messengers to run the messages around town
* the yarn in Granny's shop was out of control
* They didn't have a good way to organize or access materials in the storage rooms.
    The children voted on their top choice of what problem they would like to solve. I then looked then broke them into groups based on their choices.

     Today we were able to get into our groups and begin to brainstorm a device we could build to solve the problem.  The students will be scored on a rubric as shown below so they frequently referenced that as they worked through the design process.  Tomorrow I will give them a preview of some of the items that will be available to "purchase" to create their design.  This will allow them/force them to go back and make revisions to their plans over the next few days.

When Science Fails

Wawawa.... You know those great inquiries that you have all planned out and oh what fun it will be, the kids will be so engaged and I can't wait to hear their thinking... Yeah reality sets in and the experiment FLOPS.  It was one of those days yesterday.  We were conducting an investigation into what happens to the energy when two objects collide.  (PS3.C)  So we set out to see what happens when two mables, attached at then of a string (like a double pendulum) collide.  Sounds doable right?!

Yeah, you know what happened....NOTHING! They just flew past each other or the strings got tangled and just wound around each other.  So, we weren't able to measure the effect of the collision, or really observe the energy transfer.  Great- another fabulous (in my head) idea out the window.  

I had to go back to the drawing board and think about how I can get the students to understand this concept, because obviously the marble idea was not a success.  Well, why not bring in another standard that requires them to design and test a model?  So that is just what I did on day two.  We began by talking about what scientists and engineers do and how often times it will take several attempts to successfully find solutions to problems.  That is just what we had to do now.  I gave them the task of designing their own model that would demonstrate what happens to energy when two objects collide.  They had to design their model within the following parameters: 

    - It had to be something that could be easily replicated.

    - The materials used had to be those that I could get access to easily at school or at home. (no crashing of cars into walls etc).  

Their designs were great!! I was so excited to see them applying all aspects of science AND bringing in what we've been investigating in language workshop!! 

 Whew, much more successful and way more meaningful for them!! I had so many of them go home that night and try out their models- it was awesome!! 

Another Science Mystery

     Have I mentioned my love for science....?? NO?!  Well let me know tell you this girl loves science, I love everything about science and how it can get your most reluctant readers and learners engaged.  Science is the area that helps students see the link between the skills they are learning in reading and math and what we do as everyday scientists.
     The new NGSS has added in the the engineering component which I believe is crucial to problem solving, and developing a true appreciation for science.  Through the lens of an engineer/scientist we began our inquiry in to sound waves.  We read another mystery from a great text called Everyday Science Mysteries.
Definitely worth a read through!
     Today the kids were given a problem where two girls are trying to communicate with a TCTS device (tin cans connected by string).  The students are then posed with the problem of how to make their communication more clear.  After reading the story the students got out their content journals and wrote their hypothesis to test to see how they could help the girls engineer a new TCTS device.

     The students then went out, gathered their materials and tested their new designs.  It  was great to see what they came up with!  They may not have seen themselves as engineers, but that is exactly what they were doing- planning, testing, and redesigning their ideas.  AMAZING!

   The conversation that followed their work was awesome.  They had some great ideas of why their design did or did not work.  Many were going to take some action at home and test out some different design theories that they had, with supplies I was unable to provide. The students debated if it was the type of string used that may have inhibited the sound. They speculated that since the fibers were looser on yarn than the string that the waves would have a harder time traveling through.  Really?! Wow that is some great thinking and hypothesizing!!! 

Taking a "Closer" Look at Informational Text

      Yesterday we began learning how to use the "Close"  reading strategy when reading informational text.  I love this strategy because it really helps to deepen the student's understanding of not only the topic, but how we as readers have read carefully when encountering new text.
      For this lesson I pulled an article that was related to our current unit of study.  I use the website Newsela to pull these as I am able to vary the levels to match the readers. So we read an article about developing cheaper solar cells.  The first step that I taught them for this strategy was to read the article silently while asking questions and annotating the text.  This is a great way for me to see what they are noticing within the text and the types of questions they were asking.  We then moved on to step two and had I them get with a partner and share and discuss what they noticed, and any lingering questions that their partner may be able to answer.  Step three in our "Close" process" was to come up to group and read the article aloud to them a second time.  While I read I asked them to listen for details that support the main idea/topic.  I think this went very well because they had read and discussed it previously and were able to identify these details quite easily.  Lastly, for this lesson they went back to their seats and thought about what they read, then wrote about it, this too they shared with a partner.

  Today, I will bring the focus to our writing about the article.  The underlying of idea of "Close" reading is for them to learn to read like and investigator, and write like a reporter.  So, we will go back and reread the article a third time, and look for examples to prove the main idea/topic.  They will have to respond to the writing by citing evidence from the text.  
   I know it may seem like a lot of steps for one piece of text, but it is critical that the students learn how important it is to really examine an informational text to be sure they are understanding all the pieces.

Informational Text: Procedural and Persuasive

As we have started our new UOI, we have been fortunate to tie it in with not only science, but literacy as well.  Lucky us! So to make the most use of our time we have to examine what it is we want the children to know by the end of our unit.  So the focus GLEs for this UOI are going to be:
RI 4.1- Using an informational text to find details that support inferences, and also find those explicitly stated in the text.
RI 4.5- Examine the structure of a text, or part of a text
RI 4.3- Explain procedures, & ideas or concepts in scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why.
4.W.2- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and info clearly.
4.W.7- Conduct short research projects
4.W.9- Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
It's a lot, I know- but this is a big unit that will require proficiency in all of these areas to complete the summative assessment at the end of the unit.

As we move through each of the NGSS standards we will be also hitting a CCSS right along with it.  This is definitely one of the times where I feel that my teaching flows seamlessly throughout the day, as children begin to make connections in the purpose from learning to read informational text to learning about energy.

Yesterday I began reading aloud a book about energy, light, and sound.  As I read the students took notes in their binders on two items: what observations they made of the text (structure/features) and what they noticed I did as a reader (reading strategies).  Fun fact, as I was reading Frank Serafini's book about the readers' workshop he mentions in there that 50% of the books children read from the library are informational text, but over 90% of the books we read aloud in the classroom are narrative.  So, of course we will and NEED to take some time to model how we read these texts.

Today we created an anchor chart listing the observations we made of the text and myself as a reader.  I then modeled how I take my learning from the text to make a quick set of notes to refer to later.  Afterwards I sent the students out to practice this skill independently.

Science Mysteries

    One of my favorite books for sparking inquiry in children is Everyday Science Mysteries. This series of books presents children with stories that can be read independently or as a whole class that present a problem that can be investigated through inquiry and research.  Now, like most currently published books, this book is not up to date with the NGSS standards.   That being said you can easily search through the stories and find many that will relate to your topic or strand.

    The story we looked at today was called Grandfather's Clock.  In this story a young girl is curious as to what makes the clock work and how they can adjust the pendulum so that it keeps correct time.  After reading the story the students are presented with the task to help Mary explain how to adjust the clock's pendulum.
    Today's discussion was the first of many to address the science standard 4.PS3.4.1 to build a simple device using stored energy to solve a problem.  In the process we were also able to hit the W4.2 as we wrote a procedure to test our hypothesis.  So first things first- designing our pendulum.  The book explains how to do so, or you could pre-make them to save time.  We then worked together as a class to write a hypothesis to match our essential question: How can I change the rate at which the pendulum swings?  After discussing what a hypothesis was we added the word & definition to our current "science graffiti wall".  I then asked the students to create one more hypothesis on their own to reflect what other tests we could conduct to answer our question.  Many came up with to either change the amplitude, or the length of the string.

   Now, the fun begins!  Students were sent off in groups of three to test their hypothesis and to come up with a way to organize their data.  As they were working I made some quick observations then pulled them up to group to discuss what I noticed as I walked around. This was the perfect time to launch into a discussion of variables and to examine our investigations to see what variables were being tested- and to  be sure it was only one at a time.  After clearing up how we test, hold etc the pendulum they were at it again.

   Upon our conclusion the students went back into their science journals and used the data we collected to write an answer to Mary's question.  

Building a Catapult

Looking back through past standards and the new NGSS we weren't finding where students were introduced to simple machines, we need them to really have a good grasp on what they are in order for them to complete 4-PS3-4.; Design a simple device using stored energy that will solve a problem.
So we began by examining three different types of simple machines, the lever, inclined plane, and the wheel & axle.  The challenge was for them to build a catapult, which is a type of lever, then classify their lever as a type 1, 2, or 3.
The students worked in teams and  were given a baggie of materials to study for 3 minutes, during this time they were to think of a design that would launch their marshmallow the farthest.  The materials included:
 - one jumbo marshmallow
 - three paper clips
 - a straw
 - two Popsicle sticks
 - a wad of clay
 - a length of string
 - a plastic spoon
 - masking tape

Once they examined their materials they had 25 minutes to construct their design.  It was amazing to hear their conversations and the way they decided on a design and even how to rework their design if it failed. Talk about using good engineering practices!!! Did I mention I love science...! Here are few examples of their work.

We brought back in our measurement standards by then measuring the distance of how far their marshmallows flew- converting it between feet and inches to yards.  We also then had to find the average distance they flew in each trial (we did 3).  

Upon exiting they had to fill out a reflection sheet about how their design worked, what they would change etc.  It was a great learning experience for all!