Spring SAVY 2019, Day 2 – Wind and Wings: Beginner Biophysics (1st/2nd)
It was another great class on Saturday! I can see the students developing relationships with their peers as our course progresses. It was especially noticeable this week as students worked together and helped each other out with some research on birds. One of the great things about a SAVY class is that students have the opportunity to learn from and work with other gifted students.
This Saturday we spent most of our time studying birds and bird flight. We started by listing what students were wondering about bird flight and what they already knew. They came up with great questions about wings and aerodynamic shape among other things. Many students connected what we were talking about to things that they had seen on nature programs or even what they have noticed while observing birds. Students also tried to diagram bird wings. They did one diagram before looking at some examples of diagrams, and then, they drew another diagram after studying those examples. We had a great discussion about how looking at the example diagrams helped our own diagrams get better by either being more specific or detailed. It helped the students see what they didn’t know or didn’t think about including.
Students began researching different birds to find out about the wings. The goal of this research is to compare and contrast different birds to see how their wings help them survive in different settings. Students will continue this research next week, and they will also try to design a bird wing with some different materials.
While they were researching, students looked at some different books. They loved the field guides! I would encourage you to check out from the library or buy some field guides. Gifted students enjoy collecting information, and field guides (on any subject) have so many facts that students love to memorize and share.
Lara Webb
Working on our Bird Diagrams
