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Career Connections at SAVY 2019: Session 1, Day 3 – Aerospace Engineering (Rising 7th)
Jul. 10, 2019—Today would be one of the most frustrating and challenging days for some students. For others, it would be a simple stepping stone to pass under their feet. Today was the day that they brought their ideas – the theoretical design – to the real world. As teams started to acquire parts, many different quotes...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Unpacking the Magic of Harry Potter (Holland W.) (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 10, 2019—Hello SAVY parents! We had another excellent day dissecting the magical world of Harry Potter. To warm up this morning, the students played a quick round of charades to display their patronus to their classmates. There were a lot of really cool animals! Shifting away from critical lenses, we discussed the lucrative world of Harry Potter. Commercialization...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Unpacking the Magic of Harry Potter (Sarah B.) (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 10, 2019—Happy Wednesday, SAVY parents! We have had another wonderful day here in the Potter-verse. These students continue to impress us with their insights, their enthusiasm, their creativity (ask them about their theme park ride design!), and their willingness to engage with the ideas of others. Today, we started out with a brief icebreaker where students...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Puzzles and Problem Solving (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 10, 2019—Most of the morning in Puzzles and Problem Solving was spent converting our classroom into an airplane…or at least a room with 15 seats and boarding passes. Consider the following scenario: The first person to board a fully-booked flight drops his or her boarding pass and doesn’t bother to pick it up. The person doesn’t...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Journey Through Time (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 10, 2019—Day Three in Journey through Time started with a return to the English Channel and the fate of the Spanish Armada. We looked at two versions of Elizabeth I’s famous Tilbury Speech as she awaited the expected invasion of the Spanish. We considered two different videos, one featuring a performance of the actual speech and...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Fractions at Work (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 10, 2019—The week is flying by! We worked really hard adding fractions. Some students are comfortable with finding the least common denominator and converting fractions. On thing that I tried to do was push students to move beyond the formula for adding fractions and use reasoning skills. We looked at a group of fractions and thought...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Circuitry, Systems, and Design (Rising 3rd/4th)
Jul. 10, 2019—Dear SAVY Parents, Today, we had issues (by design of the lessons I mean to say). We took on the complex problems and used models to reason and have discourse in order to reach goals and discover solutions. It was amazing to see these young men work together in such respectful and reflective ways. Most...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Intro to Coding and Robotics (Rising 1st/2nd)
Jul. 10, 2019—Today we hit the ground running! It started with a review game of the skills we have learned so far this week. We were introduced to new vocabulary and new blocks to use while coding. We can now identify repeating patterns with multiple steps and apply loops within our programs. But we didn’t stop here!...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Creative Contraptions (The Wesbys) (Rising 1st/2nd)
Jul. 10, 2019—Wow, we had a great day of learning! The students did a lot of mental lifting today and stretched their thinking! We began by sorting examples of potential and kinetic energy. The sorts generated a lot of debates and more in-depth questions. For example, is a cup of hot chocolate kinetic or potential energy? (Answer: Yes, because heat...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 3 – Creative Contraptions (Ms. Tyson) (Rising 1st/2nd)
Jul. 10, 2019—“What is a system?” we asked ourselves again today. Could we identify systems in the real world? We weren’t completely sure, so we decided to create a chart that showed the generalizations/criteria about systems, and examples and non-examples of systems. After talking in small groups, we realized that systems are everywhere, including water cycle, solar...