Science

November and December

This month, the students learned more about the local recycling process, and what materials can be recycled locally.  Student pairs created posters to share a message about recycling that they personally felt was important to communicate with others and presented it to the rest of the class.  

The class also made colorful bird feeders out of cartons, repurposing something that would have otherwise been thrown away.

Microscopes!  Students were introduced to the parts of a microscope, and how to use them to look at a variety of prepared slides.  Lab groups also created their own wet mount slides to see their cheek cells, onion cells, and microscopic creatures living in a drop of pond water.

Thanksgiving STEM challenge to create specified figures out of cranberries and toothpicks. 

For some holiday fun, students grew crystals on pipe cleaner ornaments, and worked through a STEM challenge to build the gingerbread man a bridge to safety that was as strong as possible. Teams tested the strength of their bridge by counting how many pennies it could hold.