Lower School STEAM Project in the Maker Space

Students in Lauren Vanin's fifth grade class had Halloween fun in the maker space this week with a STEAM project making Pumpkin Catapults.  "This STEAM design challenge was created to give give students an opportunity to plan, design, test, and improve catapults using specific consumable materials." reports Vanin. Her students had this to say, "I know know what a 'maker mindset' is…….”

“We knew we had to design a structure that would shoot the pumpkin the furthest, so it took lots of experimenting to find the correct spoon height.” “Most of the time we spent improving our original design…..we want back to the drawing board a lot!” “It was fun measuring the distance of our shots”

“Next time I’m using the materials differently!” “The group whose catapult shot the furthest spent less time building and more time planning.  I’m doing that next time”

8th Grade Science Faculty Workshop New Curriculum in the BCI

US Student Entrepreneurs Hear from Root Stock Racing's Abby Perkiss

Abby Perkiss, History Professor at Kean University and co-founder of Root Stock Racing, an adventure race planning and community building not for profit located in the Philadelphia region met with students from the Entrepreneurship class to speak about the company, and her journey from passion to profit, and the power of building the right brand. Along with her husband,  GA upper school history teacher Brent Freedland,  Root Stock will begin to roll out their races in 2016.

Lower School / Upper School Tower Design Challenge

On September 25th the lower school and upper school collaborated on a design thinking project where they were instructed to imagine your team is proposing a GA Tower to be constructed on campus. Think Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Tower of London, Watts Tower in LA…
Envision the Tower as a celebration of Germantown Academy for all time.

Kids Teaching Kids Pre K

The Kids teaching Kids program provides for interesting leadership opportunities for students in the sciences and engineering. Upper school students work individually with pre-K and Kindergarten students to complete fun and educational science experiments.

Students last week, started by observing a diaper and commented on its ability to hold the water that was added. They discussed the idea of water absorption and dissected the diaper to determine what material is responsible for this special property.  Students removed the tiny white crystals inside the diaper and tested their ability to absorb by adding water.  They were able to see the rapid expansion of the crystals and were encouraged to feel them to note the change in texture.  

Students then looked at an application of these water absorbing crystals filling  a small round mold with the crystals and soaked them in water.  The crystals interlock as they expand, and they maintain the round shape to produce a bouncing ball.

Bee Bot and Coding in the Lower School

"Coding is the language of computer science that enables our digital world to exist and can make our lives more efficient, creative, and connected.  As the coding initiative in the Lower School begins to take shape, we continue to find a balance between screen and unplugged activities. One tool in the unplugged teaching of computer science is the Bee-Bot.  Bee-Bot is a programmable robot that can be used for teaching sequencing, problem solving, estimation, and fun.  The students in 2F recently used Bee-Bot to complete algorithms to help guide Bee-Bot through mazes. In programing, an algorithm is a list of steps that you can follow to finish a task. It is also the basis for all computer programming. The second graders laid out Bee-Bot command cards in order to form their algorithms and then inputted the commands into Bee-Bot. Often, the commands were incorrect and the students had to “debug” their program, much to their joy! 

I was amazed to see the level of engagement from the students during the lesson. Each student was able to contribute and all were excited to try a new challenge. I have to applaud the second graders for their problem solving determination and creativity! Often, they were able to find multiple ways to work together and solve the mazes." Dan Stahl, Lower School Teacher