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SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 4 – Dynamic Coasts (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 18, 2019—In the morning we learned more about coastal hazards like ocean acidification, hurricanes, tsunamis, and oil spills. Students worked in groups to research and develop presentations on one of these topics. They shared their findings to the rest of the class. After lunch, we learned about radioactive decay and how scientists use radiometric dating (like...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 4 – Solving for the Unknown (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 18, 2019—Hello SAVY parents! Some students were able to bring their items for the store tomorrow. Thank you so much for all of your help. Please remember if you can’t send items we will be able to improvise! This morning I was very impressed that I when I gave the students keywords in Math and they...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 4 – Makings of America (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 18, 2019—Hello SAVY Parents, Another amazing day in Colonial America. By the end of the day, we had officially Declared our Independence! In the morning, we looked more closely at the life of George Washington through personal and official letters and other text that he found valuable. We continue to observed his ability to “know self”, seek...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 4 – Dabbling with DNA (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 18, 2019—Today we began our studies of biotechnology. We started with a review of the structure of DNA, then looked at examples of restriction enzymes and figured out where the different restriction enzymes would cut a piece of DNA. This led to DNA electrophoresis and DNA profiling. The students determined the sizes of different pieces of...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 4 – Witty Wordplay (Rising 1st/2nd)
Jul. 18, 2019—We were on fire for writing today! First we did a Word Ladder to warm up our word play mindset. Then we continued our evaluation of systems by looking for inputs and outputs as well as boundaries found in cafeterias. From our cafeteria system model, we began thinking about where we would be able to...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 4 – Wind and Wings (Rising 1st/2nd)
Jul. 18, 2019—We started our work today by studying insects in flight. We learned that insect flight is quite different from bird flight and less understood. Scientists are learning more and more with better technology like slow motion cameras. We talked about how it’s hard to swat a fly. As students researched, they found out information about...
Career Connections at SAVY 2019: Session 2, Day 3 – Strength and Structure of Engineering Materials (Rising 7th)
Jul. 17, 2019—Today was our day of engineering ethics. We started out our morning by reading and translating the engineering code of ethics as stated by the National Society for Professional Engineers (NSPE). We then discussed a lot of different engineering scenarios with a lot of complicated ethical problems. Ask your students about these scenarios! Ask them...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 3 – Math and Music (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 17, 2019—This morning the mathemusicians continued their work preparing for the trial of John Cage on Friday. This morning, both teams determined their witnesses and shared them with the opposing side. Taking the stand for the prosecution will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Julian Dodd. Speaking for the defense will be Weird Al Yankovic and Albert...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 3 – Dynamic Coasts (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 17, 2019—What a busy day! We got to experiment with a stream table in a research lab in Vanderbilt’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Department! This activity helped us better understand how rivers erode and deposit sediment. We were also able to see what happens to a stream when base level drops. In the afternoon, we spent...
SAVY 2019: Session 5, Day 3 – Solving for the Unknown (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 17, 2019—Hello SAVY parents! I can’t believe we are almost halfway through our session here at summer SAVY. I was excited to hear all the students tell me how they were able to work their “magic” at home last night with the card trick. Thank you so much for allowing them to show what they’ve learned...