Big Picture:

The Nile River was, and still is, an oasis in the desert. Ancient Egyptians took advantage of the annual flooding of the banks of the Nile River and planted their crops in the fertile “black land” along the sides of the Nile River.

Aerial View of the Nile River

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Small Picture:

Younger Kids and Middle Kids are experimenting will different soils, dirt and sand to see which is best for growing Pinto Bean plants.

First we asked a question… because scientists ask questions!

The Younger Kids are asking: “Where will beans sprouts grow better? Sand or soil?”

The Middle Kids are asking “Will beans grow better in sand, dirt, potting soil, or my own perfect recipe of soil?” The Middle Kids got to plant four different beans in those four different soils. For, “the perfect recipe” they made up their own, so everyone’s is different.

Now we are observing…

And practicing drawing scientifically accurate pictures

We practiced picking the right colors to draw a realistic, or real-life, picture, aka a “scientific drawing”.

 

This will be a good lesson in observing and being honest in our observations. Some plants may not grow at all; some may grow best in a soil we did not predict would be best; sometimes our hypothesis may be wrong. We are learning that is okay! Sometimes, we learn more from experiments that do not end as expected! 

Big Picture:

How Egyptians moved the stones to build the pyramids (an engineering design problem we explored in our last STEM post) has been a mystery debated by scientist and Egyptologists. If Egyptians put the stones on sleds, the dry sand would cause major friction problems! When they pulled the sled, sand would build up in front of the sled – and no number of people or camels could move it!

Recently a group of researchers at the University of Amsterdam came to the conclusion that though dry sand causes all these problems… wet sand has much less friction, making it much easier to pull the sled!

This short Youtube video explains it pretty simply!

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Small Picture:

The Middle Kids and Older Kids tackled this problem head on! And became physicists in the process!

First we explored wet sand vs. dry sand, and made a prediction, “Which sand will make the sled harder to drag?”

Kids exploring wet and vs. dry sand

Then we studied frictional forces acting against a model-sled on wet sand vs. dry sand.

Sled over wet sand (top) and sled over dry sand (bottom)

Middle Kids and Older Kids discovered that the dry sand would build up in front of the sled. As for which is easier… it was hard to tell (because our model was small, and our blocks were light). But we decided the sled over wet sand had LESS FRICTION and so it was slightly easier to move the blocks!

What We Learned:

Had fun? Check!

Questions? Answered!

Mystery? Solved!

Physics? Easy!

Physicist? Hard to spell!

Big Picture:

The Egyptians were innovators and engineers! They figured out how to move very heavy blocks to build their pyramids. 

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Small Picture:

The Younger Kids, Middle Kids, and Older Kids worked on solving a problem… How can we move stones across a room, like the Egyptians did?

We worked through the Engineering Design Process…

Stating the problem…

and coming up with solutions…

  

Then we built and tested our solutions…

Picking out supplies

Working on our designs

Improving our designs

TEAMWORK!

Engineering can be messy!

Big Picture:

STEM stands for:

S – Science

T – Technology

E – Engineering

M – Math

 STEM is what happens when those are all taught together and in support of each other! Science is our content knowledge, that might be knowing colors and shapes in Preschool, animal habitats and adaptations in Younger Kids and Middle Kids, or the periodic table in Older Kids. Scientists ask questions! Technology, in STEM, is anything that helps meet a human need or want – a rubber band, a desk, a whiteboard – those all meet needs or wants, and are all technologies, even if they are not electronic or computerized! Engineering is how we solve problems. With engineering, we will focus on solving real-world problems, and think about, or draw, a design before we build. Engineers always remember that failure is OK! If our first solution fails, we go back to improve our design (see the engineering design process below)! Math is how we measure or count in STEM. Anytime we measure distance, volume, or time, we are using math!

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Small Picture:

For our first STEM lesson, in all classes, we talked about what STEM means, and started exploring some parts of STEM!

Singing our STEM song

S. T. E. M.  . . . That spells STEM!

S. T. E. M.  . . . That spells STEM!

S is for Science 

What do you see?

T is for Technology 

Helps you and me!

E is for Engineering 

problems and designs!

M is for Math

and measuring lines!

 Ask your students if they remember the song! Maybe they can teach it to you! If you have more than one kiddo at Rivendell, this song is something they ALL learned!

Hi Rivendell Families,

Welcome to my STEM blog!

In my blog I will organize posts in a “Big Picture” and a “Small Picture”. The “Big Picture” is a grander scale of why or how we are doing STEM across all of Rivendell. The “Small Picture” is what this might look like in your child’s classroom!

For my first post, I thought I would tell you a little bit about myself and STEM!

Big Picture:

STEM: STEM is a new position at Rivendell and I am excited to be starting some innovative new things… to go along with our Innovation theme this year!

STEM stands for:

• Science
• Technology
• Engineering
• Math

Emma: I love STEM and recently finished my Masters in Education with a focus in science education. I believe strongly in opening up STEM thinking and STEM careers to all children!

Small Picture:

STEM: STEM will look different in all the classrooms and will look different every week! All students, Preschool through 6th grade, will be doing STEM with me.

But, thinking like an engineer doesn’t stop after I leave! Instead, STEM will be a way of thinking and learning, that your child might apply at recess, at home, or on the playground!

Emma: I am new to Fort Collins and Rivendell! So if I look lost or haven’t learned your name yet – come say hi! I have had a stellar first FULL week of school, and I LOVE group sing! I spend my free-time in nature whenever I can!