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Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 3, “Circuitry, Systems, and Design: Electrical Engineering” (3rd-4th)
Jun. 25, 2025—Dear Students and Parents, Today in Circuitry Systems & Design, our young engineers made an exciting leap from learning about electricity to applying their knowledge in real-world design challenges. With a strong foundation in how electricity flows and which materials conduct or insulate, students were ready to begin designing and building their own electrical systems. We...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 3, “Plants & Pollen: Exploring Agricultural Engineering” (1st-2nd)
Jun. 25, 2025—We started our morning together by reviewing what we have learned so far this week to include the topic of butterflies. We watched a video of a Monarch Butterfly going through metamorphosis. The next pollinator we learned about was bats. Students were amazed to learn about how many bats exist and were fascinated by what...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 3, “Archeology 101: Unearthing Secrets of the Past” (1st-2nd)
Jun. 25, 2025—Today was a big day for our young archaeologists. This morning, we had a visit from Ms. Lily. She’s a Bioarcheologist and research assistant in the Bioarcheology and Stable Isotope Research Lab at Vanderbilt. We explored how you can determine a person’s age by analyzing their teeth. You can analyze a pelvis to determine if...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Neurobiology of Learning and Memory” (7th-8th)
Jun. 24, 2025—Today began with our student presentations on multiple sclerosis (or “MS”, a condition resulting from neurons losing their protective coating)! The four student groups lead a review of action potential (neuronal communication) and presented very useful information on the definition, causes, treatment, and future research directions of MS. Specifically, we improved our understanding of how...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Introduction to Python for Beginners” (7th-8th)
Jun. 24, 2025—Hello Parents and Students! We wrapped up Day 2 of the Intro to Python for Beginners course, and today was all about thinking like a programmer. Students took a big step forward by learning how to make decisions in code and automate repetitive tasks. These are powerful tools in any programmer’s toolbox! Today’s focus was on two big ideas:...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Finding “Faults” in Media: The Geology of Disaster Movies” (7th-8th)
Jun. 24, 2025—Hello SAVY Parents! Today’s theme was natural disasters, and we covered a lot of aspects of them! We started out with the students learning about earthquake magnitude and intensity, hazard (likelihood of an event occurring) vs risk (likelihood of that event impacting a particular location), and recurrence intervals of different natural disasters. After that, we...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Space and Story: Structure of the Universe” (5th-6th)
Jun. 24, 2025—It was an exciting day in Space and Story: Structure of the Universe! We started the day learning about the major change Einstein made to Newton’s ideas about gravity. To see for ourselves how massive objects distort spacetime, we used spandex tape wrapped hula hoops to model spacetime in our universe. We used pucks as...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Math & Music” (5th-6th)
Jun. 24, 2025—Today’s math and music class dove deep into the world of copyright. We began by discussing what makes a work qualify as copyright infringement versus simply drawing inspiration from another artist’s creation. The conversation sparked some lively debate as students explored how originality and influence intersect in music. To make it interactive, we played a...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Biology of the Body: Exploring Human Body Systems” (5th-6th)
Jun. 24, 2025—Dear Savy Families, We started our day deepening our learning about the components of blood, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma, along with their functions. We made connections between the circulatory system and other systems. To wrap up our learning about the circulatory system, we used microscopes to see blood components up...
Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, “Percy Jackson & Greek Mythology” (3rd-4th)
Jun. 24, 2025—Day two was a great opportunity to really dive deep and focus on the big three gods and Perseus! We started our day by looking at images of the 12 Olympians with their symbols and using that information to figure out which God was being portrayed in the picture. This was a great refresher of...