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Spring SAVY 2017, Day 3- Robotic Programming
Feb. 14, 2017—Greetings! Today was so incredibly fantastic! We started by talking about strategies that you can use when you get frustrated, because they are all hitting levels in programming that are challenging (which is GREAT and means we are doing our job to challenge them!) and how important it is to stick with something, but to...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 3- Awesome Algebra
Feb. 14, 2017—Our class was moved to the Hobbs building today, and the students did a wonderful job adjusting to our new environment. We appreciate your diligence in continuing to bring them awake and alert, ready to learn each Saturday. Thank you also for continuing to send peanut-free snacks that are safe for everyone in our classroom...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 3- Science of the Sea: Diving into Marine Biology
Feb. 14, 2017—Today in Marine Biology we learned some chemistry, especially chemistry of the ocean. We first completed a quick background in matter and atoms. We then investigated how these atoms formed charges which lead to ionic bonds. Some molecules that form ionic bonds are salts, but not just the table salt we normally think of. Salts...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 3- Environmental Explorations: Dig It!
Feb. 14, 2017—Dear Parents: We had a wonderful lab-filled morning this Saturday! Our day begin with a review of natural resources, and those that are renewable and non-renewable. We also reviewed energy sources (wind, solar, water, nuclear, etc.) Then I read a fun book called Ada Twist Scientist, and we reviewed the characteristics of a scientist. From...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 3- Discovering the Third Dimension
Feb. 14, 2017—It was another super Saturday with your mathematicians. As we used new math language to communicate ideas, as we hypothesized and tested, as we created and constructed…it’s amazing that these learners are only in kindergarten! This week, we explored the world of 3D solid figures. We created pyramids and prisms with toothpicks and marshmallows, as...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 2- Designing Shakespeare
Feb. 6, 2017—WOW! Thank you for an impassioned, zany, madcap class session! We read more of the first scene of the Tempest, and together we remediated the text into design imagery: in this case, we imagined what the excitement of the tempest itself might feel like. We began to negotiate use of evocative binaries. It’s helpful to...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 2- Chromatography 101
Feb. 6, 2017—This week in Chromatography 101 we began by reviewing the three components of chromatography and discussing some of the limitations of paper chromatography (the technique we used last week to separate ink components and determine which pen had forged part of a check). The students pointed out that not only were there limitations to what...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 2- Intro to Journalism
Feb. 6, 2017—This week in Intro to Journalism, we continued learning about newswriting by putting our writing, interviewing, and critical thinking skills into practice. Students wrote their very own breaking news stories based on a prompt: they were asked to imagine that students in their school had received a letter from the principal on the last day...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 2- Hydrology 101: The World of Water
Feb. 6, 2017—Hydrology Day 2 was all about geomorphology! After refining our vocabulary on topography and geomorphological processes, we headed over to the Vanderbilt Earth and Environmental laboratory to build a stream. Students had the opportunity to work with geomorphologists to observe all the processes (e.g. meandering, erosion, deposition, channelization) that make up river networks! Students also...
Spring SAVY 2017, Day 2- Writing and Reflection
Feb. 6, 2017—We had an exciting lesson on the use of cliché and surprise in our second day of “Writing and Reflection.” First, we reviewed our last lesson, revisiting and defining the Five “Rules” of Writing and rereading the Walt Whitman-inspired poems we wrote last Saturday. Some students even felt inspired to share their promising work with...