Peppermint Studies in 2nd Grade

The second graders, fresh off their Colonial Days celebration of learning, are studying more about a special herb with seasonal uses: peppermint! Today they used and on-line reaction test to explore the theory that smelling or eating peppermint can increase focus and decrease reaction time to visual cues.

The test can be found here: reaction time test Try it!

They took the test before and after smelling peppermint oil and eating a peppermint candy. As you can imagine, this was one test they asked to repeat!

Science and Art

Thanks for the interesting read, @WNPR, my STEAM students, will love to hear about the idea of turning this amazing piece of science, technology, engineering and math into art!

http://thebeaker.org/post/104425958519/at-yale-lab-an-era-of-particle-research-comes-to?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=FBWNPR4496

Another great classroom resource to layer the learning!

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-hidden-worlds-within-natural-history-museums-joshua-drew

Making models of watersheds and landforms as part of 1st graders' studies of North America

Where would you build a house near a river?

Rearranging continents to recreate Pangaea

Last spring, TCS STEAM coordinator Steff Smelser and I had the opportunity to spend three days at a STEM to STEAM conference at RISD and to participate in workshops with inspiring educators and professionals in STEAM fields. In addition, we met and heard presentations by members of the joint Brown-RISD 2014 Solar Decathlon team, who participated in a real-world STEAM design challenge. It was wonderful to be inspired and to feel validated in our work. Here's more to bolster our vision (from the NY Times Education Life section this past week-end):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/education/edlife/putting-art-in-stem.html?_r=4

Brown-RISD Techstyle Haus 2014

Second grade colonists have been collecting natural materials from around campus and experimenting with natural dying methods. 

I love using virtual field trips as a teaching tool. All that's needed to enhance curricular topics and give students a sense of new places (near and far) is an iPad and a projector. Looking forward to using some of these great ideas and links from Edutopia!

Check out the "Blood Moon" Eclipse on Wednesday morning! We may luck out and get to see it on our way to school!

September 2014

It has been a wonderfully busy start to the school year. We are excited about all we have planned in the STEAM Lab and around campus. The students are happy and ready!

It has been a pleasant and drier than normal summer here in CT, but the TCS Children's garden has done just fine. Here, a Kindergartener, proudly displays some of the harvest from the "pizza bed" that she and her PreK classmates planted last spring.

Here, our PreKers meet Yoko, the STEAM lab guinea pig, and learn about measurement tools that scientists might use in their observations and data collecting.

As part of their bee studies, the 1st graders have been studying pollination. Here they use their model bees to help pollinate the TCS flower beds.

3rd graders experienced a "hands-on" science lesson on population sampling on their Grass Island field trip recently. They counted and recorded the numbers of different living things in a 50cm diameter circle. They collected lots of interesting data. Stay tuned for their reports!

Which materials will bees prefer to nest in - wood blocks, bamboo or bark? The 1st graders have been busy building and hypothesizing. Their hive will be installed in the children's garden as part of this long term experiment. Come see for yourselves!

3rd graders have been hard at work collecting images of their Grass Island finds. Here, they are using the MyStory app on the iPad to photograph, research and catalogue shells.

Serious math work in science class - here the 3rd graders tally the data on the species of Grass Island. Early results show that periwinkle snails and asian shore crabs are thriving!

Change is an overarching theme of 2nd grade science. Lately, the students have been differentiating between physical and chemical changes. Here, a solid and a liquid combine in an exciting way to make gas! What kind of change is this?