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.

New Entrepreneurship Club in the US

Grant G. US student president of the Entrepreneurship Club is seen signing up students at GA's recent activities fair. This new club will provide students with access to Shark Tank simulations, Branding and Marketing Advice, Business Model Generation, Start-Up Practice, and guest entrepreneurs.

Digital Mathfolios in the Lower School

Lower School teacher, Marnie McDonald  had been using paper portfolios and digital portfolios for many years with her students, when she asked herself, “ How could a process “mathfolio” tell the story of the growth of my math students?” It was her  belief that every student should have a collection of personal bests–a cloud-based story of their development and artifacts of accomplishment that was easily shareable and organized for presentation.

When starting the portfolio process, McDonald kept it simple. "I started with a single unit. I determined goals and purpose for the portfolio, created a checklist and explained the process to students. I encouraged them to take an active role in the development of their portfolios. What I discovered is a  valuable and meaningful evaluation tool that effectively assesses student learning in math.  These portfolios offered insight into my student's thinking, understanding, and mathematical problem-solving skills, and offered a picture of the student's progress in math."  The students thought it was a great process too.  Here is what some of them had to say: Max reports, "I liked that I could be creative in math." Dominic adds, "It was challenging for me to do the polygons, but I actually learned them by doing them over and over again."  And Sarah states, "I loved designing my own dream home. I calculated the area and perimeter for each room. This did not make it into the portfolio but it was awesome."

Click here to see the results.

Middle School Students Draft Their Own Re-Design of the GA Field House

As the school year was winding down earlier last summer, middle school students in Mr. DiFranco's science class integrated their understanding of mechanics, design, and new technologies in a project based learning unit around GA's new field house expansion.  Below are some prototypes of designs including fans designed and printed using the Makerbot 3D printers in the Beard Center for Innovation's new makerspace.