US CAD Design Class Rocks Thinkverse

STEAM Class in Lower School

4th Grade classes rotated through their first STEAM Studio session last month, a new program team taught by Jess Killo (art) and Craig Newberger (science).  Session 1 was all about team building, creative solutions, trust and collaboration.  As the students worked together to create elaborate masking-tape-mazes, they also had to plan for how they would safely get their classmates across, over and through the obstacles.  Not only were they working together to creatively engineer a course, but they were forecasting potential problems and creating solutions to test out.  Once the brave and blindfolded volunteer was called forth, the teammates carefully guided them to the starting point.  From there, the students could only use verbal instruction and encouragement to get their classmate through the maze.  They quickly realized that this instructional process was just like coding!  Upon reflection, the students pointed out many aspects of the experience that connected to science, technology, engineering, art and math.  

Middle School Greek Day: Bring on the (Coding) Games!

Last spring, during the annual Greek Day in the Middle School, students incorporated algorithmic thinking and coding exercises as part of a day filled with fun. They developed a competitive game using  Code Academy to generate as many lines of code as possible, the grade that completed the most lines of code were awarded points for Greek Day. Students also engaged in modified Simon Says by acting out lines of code.

Lower School and Upper School Partner in Hands on Science

The second annual lower school /upper school assembly took place late in September where student had the opportunity to buddy up and collaborate on paper engineering projects. Lisa Martin and Jamie Anderson who direct the Kids Teaching Kids (Engineering) Program organized the event along with Allison Sasson, Lower School Assistant Head, and Dave Martin, House Head Director in the Upper School.  Students teams worked in labs ad classrooms in both divisions including the maker space in the Beard Center for Innovation.

 

Lower School Students Laser Cut Portraits for Humanitas Exhibition

Humanitas, an Art Across the Academy community event will host an exhibition in the Art Center Gallery during the month of October. Stop by to see the laser cut constructions Lower School students designed and executed in the Beard Center for Innovation maker pace.