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Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Greek Mythology 2.0” (5th-6th)
Jul. 24, 2025—Happy Thursday! What a wonderful Trojan War day in Greek Mythology 2.0! When students came into class, they discovered the character that they were assigned to play for the day. Half of the students were Trojans and the other half were Greeks, and we encountered several competitions throughout the day as we learned the full...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Astronomy Tricks of the Trade” (5th-6th)
Jul. 24, 2025—Our students began the day at Dyer Observatory’s Seyfert Telescope. Clear skies allowed us some very clear, broad-daylight views of two prominent stars (Sirius and Betelgeuse), which are normally only visible at night. Our last view was that of our sister planet, Venus, which currently exhibits a gibbous phase. We discussed with the students how...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “The Story of You! An Invitation to Write and Explore Autobiography” (3rd-4th)
Jul. 24, 2025—Welcome to day 4 of the Story of You! Our day started with a great discussion of what our favorite books are. This came from our daily question book, but allowed us to hear from each other about books and reading, and why the book we chose is our favorite. No one had the same...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Numbers Big and Small” (3rd-4th)
Jul. 24, 2025—We had another fun day with these SAVY math students. This morning, we learned about Fermi problems. These are open-ended questions that require students to make assumptions, estimates, and educated guesses to creatively solve them. Many don’t have clear-cut answers; sometimes, alternative paths to solutions are possible, and they take many steps to solve. (How...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Forces of Nature: Wind, Energy, and Engineering” (3rd-4th)
Jul. 24, 2025—Day 4 – July 24, 2025 | 
Windmills and the Engineering Design Process: Ask, Imagine, Plan! Today was all about the first 3 steps of our Engineering Design Process when it comes to our windmills! Using everything we have learned about materials and wind, students worked independently and then in partnerships to plan out...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Engineering Design: Full STEAM Ahead!” (1st-2nd)
Jul. 24, 2025—We had a thriving Thursday today! Our morning meeting started with sharing whether summer or winter is our favorite season. There were quite a few winter lovers, and I am certain these over-the-top hot days may be contributing to that 
Our ASK question today was “How can we use our knowledge of materials, different...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Earth Science Rocks!” (1st-2nd)
Jul. 24, 2025—Greetings from Machu Picchu Day! Today was the day we started making connections with all we have learned so far—rocks, mountains, erosion, soil. The major project of the morning was a brief review of the week’s activities so far, an introduction to Machu Picchu, and a discussion of the farming practices on the mountain, where...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Dive Into Design” (1st-2nd)
Jul. 24, 2025—Happy Thursday! Today, we explored the fundamentals of accurate measurement! We created straw paths with twists and turns to see whose path was the longest. We learned about 90-degree angles and how twists and turns can appear to make the length of something look shorter than it really is. We also encountered a crazy swimmer...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, “The Great Debate” (5th-6th)
Jul. 23, 2025—Good afternoon, families and students! It’s been another exciting day of debate and persuasion! This morning, we started the day with flash debates on silly topics (yes, pineapple absolutely SHOULD be on pizza and chairs, it turns out, are just failed beds!) that allowed us to shake off some of our public speaking nerves and...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, “Greek Mythology 2.0” (5th-6th)
Jul. 23, 2025—Happy Wednesday! We had another fun day in Greek Mythology 2.0! While the first two days of class focused on forgotten titans, gods, and other immortal figures, today’s lessons focused on forgotten heroes and humans from the mythology canon. We began by diving a little bit deeper into the story of Pelops (we had already...