Author
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 4, Chemical Spill (Lowe) (3rd-4th)
Jul. 18, 2024—We love hearing the students’ ideas, connections, and questions! Their knowledge and interests have added so much to our discussions. This has been a fun bunch! The class started the day by classifying yesterday’s 12 safe kitchen-type liquids as acidic or basic. Then, we learned that to protect the fish and plants it is necessary...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 4, Engineering Design (Lewis) (1st-2nd)
Jul. 18, 2024—Engineering Design discussed elephants to start our day off. Did you know that an elephant weighs 7 tons? We continued our exploration of the Brooklyn Bridge by reading the story Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. We learned that when the Brooklyn Bridge was constructed, people were amazed at its size but were skeptical that it...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 4, Engineering Design (Allison) (1st-2nd)
Jul. 18, 2024—We had a busy day today! This morning I read the book Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing by April Jones Prince, illustrated by Fançois Roca. This is the true story of how twenty-one elephants crossed the Brooklyn Bridge after the bridge was completed. We watched a documentary clip with drawings from this 140-year-old bridge’s plans....
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 4, Earth Science Rocks (1st-2nd)
Jul. 18, 2024—We started today’s exploration with experiments that displayed erosion from acid (vinegar) and friction. Many eager hands worked away on our rocks and keen observations and analyses were made. We moved on to a study of minerals, closely observing, identifying, and comparing our samples of minerals. We also started a rock tumbler to polish some...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 3, The Power of Persuasion (7th-8th)
Jul. 17, 2024—Hello all you persuasive people! To kick start our morning, we reviewed the investment offers that yesterday’s sharks officially made. All of our teams received investment bids and team ThermoProtect received a whopping 250-million-dollar combined investment! That’s a lot of dough! However, after a self-evaluation of our persuasive performances in the investment pitch, we...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 3, Invasive Species (7th-8th)
Jul. 17, 2024—Dear students and families, A little more than halfway through we have accomplished so many of our goals already! Today we had a little check-in talk to remind the students about classroom standards to start the day. Then we dove right in, talking about policy and laws surrounding invasive species. We watched Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 3, Exploring the Human Mind (7th-8th)
Jul. 17, 2024—Dear “Exploring the Human Mind” parents, Following the same structure we have been using so far, we began with some fun icebreakers to get the group warmed up. Then we jumped into a discussion about pop psychology and talked about common myths that we may have heard in our everyday lives, such as that...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 3, Wildlife Ecology (5th-6th)
Jul. 17, 2024—We started the day with a “Have you ever” getting-to-know-you activity. None of them have been sky diving but curiously a student, in addition to our one from Iowa, has been to a Hawkeye football game. Today was math heavy starting with a discussion of the levels of ecological studies – biosphere, ecosystems, communities, and...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 3, Intro to Neurobiology (5th-6th)
Jul. 17, 2024—Dear SAVY Families, Another day full of learning, fun, and “memories”! First in the morning was our students’ presentations! They did an amazing job. Each of the four teams prepared 4-7 slides to educate the whole class about a demyelinating disease (nerve cells losing their sheath and transmitting information much slower) – multiple sclerosis. The...
Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 3, Transformations in Writing (3rd-4th)
Jul. 17, 2024—Greetings and Salutations! Today was busy, busy, busy, busy. The kids are in full author mode and are working on original stories. Today’s focus was on character and why it is important to develop character. We started the day discussing character and the character arc, which is where a character exists but has a problem...