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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 4 – Intro to Programming (Rising 2nd)

Jul. 19, 2018—Hi SAVY Parents! The week has flown by; we can’t believe that tomorrow is our last day! Today, we consulted a historical text (Julian May’s Robots and Thinking Machines, way back from 1961) to learn about the definitions of machines and robots. What is the difference between a machine and a robot? Are all robots...

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 4 – Character Creations (Rising 2nd)

Jul. 19, 2018—Happy Thursday! This week is flying by and we are eager to see the parents tomorrow morning to show off our awesome puppets. We started off the morning by finishing our puppets. The students stayed on task the entire time so we were able to complete the puppets within the allotted time. The groups worked...

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 4 – Becoming a Botanist (Rising 1st)

Jul. 19, 2018—We had a nice morning warm up discussion about the input and output in the plant system after reading an entertaining and informative book called, Tops and Bottoms, and another engaging book called “Next Time a See a Maple Seed”. We discussed how plants use photosynthesis to make nutrients for plants and that they use...

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Summer Career Connections at SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – The Power of Persuasion (Rising 7th)

Jul. 18, 2018—Day three commenced with a few iterations of The Line, with students ultimately embodying an imagined six thousand year old kitchen table. We used the scenario of the table as a jumping-off point to identify problems in our hypothetical kitchen and to brainstorm potential solutions; in so doing, we illustrated that any problem in a...

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Summer Career Connections at SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Behavioral Economics and Game Theory (Rising 7th)

Jul. 18, 2018—Another great day of SAVY! Today we analyzed a few combinatorial games. We talked about how game theorists study these games by observing how many potential moves are left and which spots they could be in. Then we can determine if the current setup is a winning state or a losing state for either player....

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Marvelous Mechanisms (Rising 5th/6th)

Jul. 18, 2018—This morning we began with a thorough analysis of sprocket ratios available on a 21 speed bicycle. We found that there was a lot of overlap between the ratios available on the front chain rings, and that shifting through all 21 speeds in order of sprocket ratios would be utterly impractical. Next we learned how...

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Stellar Astronomy (Rising 5th/6th)

Jul. 18, 2018—Another mind-blowing day! We began our day looking at the rather wacky order of stellar spectral classes – OBAFGKM – and so generated mnemonic devices to help remember the order.  A rather standard one is “Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy, Kiss Me” but you should talk to your student to see what they came up with...

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Poetic Play (Rising 3rd/4th)

Jul. 18, 2018—Happiest Wednesday of Poetic Play! The week is whipping by! This morning, students worked on a creative writing exercise with “PoetryCubes” (adapted from the wonderful game, StoryCubes.) Students were each given a special “image-dice,” and asked to roll their dice, choose a category on the board (each category included one of the five senses, and a...

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Chemical Spill, Mr. Knorr (Rising 3rd/4th)

Jul. 18, 2018—Hello Parents! Day 3 is in the books! We had another great day using the scientific method and our understanding of chemistry to help Vanderbilt clean up its chemical spill site. In the lab session, we saw the awesome power of chemical reactions! We tested the pH of an acidic solution and then added baking...

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Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Chemical Spill, Miss Raff (Rising 3rd/4th)

Jul. 18, 2018—Due to recent events (the chemical spill!!), we spent the morning learning about different types of chemical spills. Your scientists worked as research teams to clean up an oil spill. They had to purchase clean-up supplies while staying within their $1,000,000 research budget. They learned that cleaning up an oil spill is not easy: it...

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