Week of February 21-24

This week, the 3rd graders continued to research their chosen topics related to our oil spill unit. We discussed the importance of pulling out the most important info and explaining it in ways our classmates will understand and that will hold their interest. Presentations shouldn't be text heavy. Instead, they should rely on strong images to convey their information. I can't wait to see the final projects next week!

In 4th grade, we have added all the sensors to our robots! We discussed how the ultrasonic sensor would be useful for something like a vacuuming robot because it can sense when the robot is within a certain distance of an object and back up or turn so it doesn't bump into things. Some groups started a design challenge to try to get the robot to move without wheels or to make it move up an incline. This is still a work in progress!

The 5th graders were busy creating patents, logos, jingles, and pitches for their inventions. Next week, we will determine if these inventions are worthy of receiving patents. Who knows - maybe we will have the next Thomas Edison or Nikola Tesla on our hands!

Week of February 13-17

This week the 3rd graders became researchers. They chose a topic related to our oil spill unit and learned how to take notes by paraphrasing (putting the info into their own words). Some examples of topics are how cruiseships damage our environment, the pros and cons of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources, the pros and cons of the Keystone Pipeline, and real oil spills that have happened in the past and their effect on the environment and economy. After the note-taking phase, we will learn how to put our info into a clear, concise presentation.

In 4th grade, we added the ultrasonic sensor to our robots. This can judge distances and "see" where objects are. We used a switch block (boolean logic) to walk our robot dog. If the robot is less than 5 inches from our hand, it will move backward. Otherwise, it will move forward. You can see this in the video below.

Now that we've explored other inventors' patents, it was time for the 5th graders to come up with their own inventions/innovations to patent. I was so impressed with the students' creativity. In doing research on previous inventions, we realized how difficult it is to come up with a novel idea, but that didn't stop us! Stay tuned for Shark Tank style pitches on these inventions in the coming weeks!

Week of February 6-10

This week, 3a improved their oil spill cleanup process, thinking about what worked well and not so well during their first process so they could make adjustments. They learned that changing the order of their steps could affect their results and that it's important to maximize their budgets.

In 4th grade, we are learning how sensors can allow the robot to make decisions or to do certain tasks based on input from the environment. Our robots can now sense reflected light, colors, and angles! The robot in this video is programmed to go around a baseball diamond by going straight and turning 90 degrees to the left in a loop that repeats 4 times.

In 5th grade, we learned all about patents and how detailed they must be in order for them to be granted. The following website has tons of great resources that explain the patent process and give samples (many of which have been filed by kids)! Next, we will be creating our own inventions or innovations and patents for these inventions!
https://www.uspto.gov/kids/guides.html

Week of January 30-February 3

This week, the 3rd grade environmental engineers implemented their oil spill cleanup processes, evaluated how effective they were, and thought of ways to improve their processes. 3b was aslo able to carry out their improved plans, and all groups were successful at removing more oil!

We are cleaning the oil spill in our model river!

In 4th grade, we added a color sensor to our robots that can detect reflected light and specific colors. We learned that when the sensor is over white paper, a lot of light is reflected back, while the black line absorbs most of the light. We found the threshold by calculating the average between the two values. We also learned that a switch block can allow the robot to make decisions and complete different tasks based on these decisions. In the program below, we are using the color sensor and switch block to make the robot follow a red line.

In 5th grade, we wrote proposals that outlined the problems we identified at Menlo and how to solve them. We will present these proposals to Mr. Duggan and Mrs. Abetamarco to see if any of our ideas can be implemented at Menlo!

Ideas of how to make the hallways safer and quieter.

Week of January 23-27

This week, the 3rd grade environmental engineers continued to move through the engineering design process to imagine possible methods to clean an oil spill. After coming up with a couple ideas independently, they shared these ideas with their team members and came up with one plan to implement first. These plans are scored using 3 criteria: cost score (we have a budget of $20 million), shore score (whether oil reached the shore), and ecosystem impact score (how much oil was left in the river). After we evaluate our first processes, we will ask more questions about what worked well and what didn't work, and we will improve our designs.

In 4th grade, we added arms to our robots that are powered using the medium motor. We learned that negative power moves the arm down, while positive power moves it up. We used this arm to move objects of different sizes from place to place.

In 5th grade, we went through the steps of the creative problem solving process to try to solve problems at Menlo. We brainstormed ideas to waste less food in the cafeteria, have people move through the hallways more quietly and safely, make our bathrooms cleaner, and more! It's exciting to think that we can actually make a difference at our school!

Week of January 16-20

This week, the 3rd graders continued to test materials and evaluate their usefulness in cleaning up an oil spill. We also did some research to find out what materials are used in real oil spills and how they compare to the materials we used in our model. Now we are ready to begin imagining and planning our oil spill cleanup processes!

In 4th grade, we had many robots successfully complete the obstacle course! You can check out an example below. Next, we are adding an arm attached to another motor so we can move things around the room!

In 5th grade, we pitched the inventions we created from a part of the technology we dismantled last week. We realized that the inventions that received the most interest from investors were the ones that were original and appealed to a large audience. We also did some research on the inventing styles of Edison and Tesla and looked at how they used FFOE (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration) when inventing. Next, we talked about steps in the creative problem solving process. We identified a problem affecting the students at Menlo and began gathering facts and info about the problem in order to prepare to brainstorm possible solutions. That is what we will work on next week.

Week of January 9-13

This week, the 3rd graders made their presentations to the mayor of Greentown (me) about what was causing the pollution problems in Greentown and what should be done about it. We learned that pollution can travel from one place to another because of water and wind and that environmental engineers test soil and water samples in order to identify potential problems in the environment. 3b also started to investigate materials that could possibly be used in our oil spill cleanup process. 

These environmental engineers are testing materials to use in an oil spill cleanup process.

In 4th grade, we used what we learned about different types of curved moves to work on the obstacle course challenge and the baseball challenge. Some groups realized that a loop block is a great shortcut when we want to repeat the same moves multiple times!

In 5th grade, we had an exciting week of dismantling technology to see what's inside. We realized that many of our gadgets have a circuit board controlling all of the functions. We made a web to show the supporting technology making up our item, and then we chose something from the web to come up with a new invention. We talked about invention by reduction - like how someone took away a wheel from a bicycle to make a unicycle or took away the pedals to make a balance bike.

Mr. Joe helped us dismantle technology!

What's inside a cell phone?

Hard at work dismantling a remote