Today's students, tomorrow's graduates

Grade 4 students are continuing their investigations around the metric system in science class.  Today they were introduced to graduated cylinders and learned how volume should be read from the bottom of the meniscus.  They made predictions on how many drops of water it would take to make a millimeter of water.  They also practiced important lab procedures for when we use graduated cylinders, beakers, and how to clean up the inevitable spills.  Only three spills today... this is why we practice with water! Tomorrow the students will learn how to find the volume of an object using displacement and complete their volume lab.

Classroom Needs

Hello friends!

We have some exciting thematic units coming up and we could use some help getting materials.  We are not looking for anyone to go out and buy anything new, this is more of a "if you have any of these things and they're collecting dust in your garage/basement/shed never to be used again... then we will take them off your hands" kind of a thing.  Here's what we're looking for:

Physical resources:

• Bird feeders (any type, any size)
• Binoculars
• Bird field guides
• Soccer balls (used balls are perfect, but falling apart is not)

All donations can be sent to school with your student and they can bring them to the science room.

Human resources:

• Ornithologist (do you know anyone who studies birds professionally that would be a good classroom resource/guest presenter?)
• Birders (do you know anyone who studies birds recreationally that would be a good classroom resource?)
• Surveyors, landscape architects, golf course designers
• Environmental scientist
• Wildlife biologist
• Rock climbers or someone who is a certified belayer

For human resources, please contact me at smcclintock@chesterfielddayschool.org for more information.

Thank you for your support of the amazing things we are going to be doing in 4-5-6 science and 

MakerSpace!!!

Speed Data-ing!

Grade 6 students refined their skills around quantitative and qualitative data collection by participating in a round of Speed Data-ing.  Basically, it's like speed dating but with 100% more science!  Students rotated through stations every 4 min.  They were given tools of measurement (rulers, meter sticks, triple-beam balances) and tools to aid their observations (hand lenses and magnifying glasses) and were tasked to create T-charts with as much quantitative and qualitative data as they could.  After they had rotated through each of the stations the students checked their measurements for accuracy and shared strategies for collecting accurate, reliable data with limited time.

Quan vs Qual

Students in grades 4-5-6 have started the school year learning about quantitative and qualitative data collection and strengthening their skills around experimental design.

Grade 4

Grade 4 students were outside collecting data from the natural world. They created tables to organize their data and spent time sharing their strategies for measuring and taking observational data.

Students are shown here working in their science notebooks.  Almost everything we do in science class will go into this notebook.  Science notebooks are a tool for CDS science students to make predictions, take notes, create data tables and graphs, make technical drawings, and form evidence -based explanations.  Grade 4 science students will continue their exploration of data as we grow our understanding of the metric system and measurement tools.

Grades 5 and 6

Students in the upper grades are further along in their knowledge of experimental design, but we still needed some refreshers on data collection and using science notebooks as a tool to share our findings.  Students in grades 5 and 6 took a *very* close look at the mealworms we use to feed the school's bearded dragon.  They took quantitative metric data such as the length, width, and height of their mealworms, used triple-beam balances to determine the mass, and got their first chance at creating technical drawings.  Next students will strengthen their understanding of variables and writing hypotheses as we progress in our conceptual framework of the experimental design process.

           

MakerSpace (Grade 5 and 6) - Learning the Design Process

Once a week students in grades 5 and 6 have a chance to use the wonderful new MakerSpace at CDS.  The students started this year by competing in the Marshmallow Challenge.  The challenge asks teams of 3 or 4 students to create the tallest, free-standing structure they can using only 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1m of tape, and 1m of string.  Their structure also had to support a marshmallow on top.  Teams had 18 minutes to complete the project.  

After the project students debriefed their personal strategies we watched a TED talk on the iterative design process.  Interestingly, this challenge has been given across the country to people of all ages and one of the most successful groups of people at the challenge are recent graduates of... kindergarten.  They outperform CEOs!  The reason they are so successful is that they continually test their designs throughout the build process.  They get immediate feedback and have time to correct for design failures.  Conversely, CEOs and businesses school graduates spend most of their time jockeying for power, planning, and then finally building.  By the time they ever test their design it is too late to make any corrections and their "Ta-da!" moment turns into an "Uh-oh!" moment.  We had a bit of both during our challenge, but the students learned a valuable lesson on testing their designs and making adjustments throughout the design process.

For more information and the TED talk visit:  http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year!

"Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world." - John Muir

I am very excited to start my adventure at Chesterfield Day School!  I will use this space as a means to communicate the learning that is happening in 4-5-6 science as well as spotlight current thematic units, concepts, and the big picture.

A little background about me... This is my 14th year teaching.  I started my career as an intern in the School District of Clayton while I worked on my undergrad in Elementary Education.  Then I taught two years of 4th grade science in the St. Louis Public School system where I was awarded Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Beginning Teacher of Missouri.  Next, I transitioned to an environmental science lab position at the Imagine Academy of Environmental Science and Math.  During my time at ESM, I was awarded Regional Teacher of the Year and completed my masters in Elementary Education with a focus on Earth-based education.  After all the training and success I had at the elementary level I decided to switch gears entirely and move to middle school science at Maplewood Richmond Heights Middle School.  I spent five years at MRH where I was heavily involved in expeditionary learning, sustainability, and adventure education.

I spend most of my free time laughing and learning with my own two children, Hayes (6) and Hattie (3), and wonderful my wife, Carlyn.

You can expect weekly updates to this space so please check back regularly or subscribe to the blog!