Week of January 19-22

This week, our 3rd grade environmental engineers were working on the "Ask" phase of the Engineering Design Process. They were asking questions about what materials and tools work well (and not so well) to clean up an oil spill by testing them in a model oil spill. We learned that the materials had certain properties that made them effective or ineffective in containing and cleaning up the oil. This will help us with our next steps of imagining and planning our clean-up process.

Engineers busy taking notes on how well materials work to clean an oil spill.

In 4th grade, we formed new teams and were introduced to our design challenge options. While many groups are still in the planning phase, one group already created an arm for their robot that can hold a pencil or marker and draw on paper! I can't wait to see all of the amazing things that my students will be able to program their robots to do!

In 5th grade, we created action plans to organize what we have to do to accomplish our goals and in what order these steps should be taken. Then we were busy working on things like creating surveys, doing research, designing websites, composing emails, conducting taste tests, and much more!

Taste testing beet/carrot/orange juice!