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Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, The Science of Senses (3rd – 4th)
Jul. 25, 2024—Hello Parents, Welcome to Day 4 of Sense-Sational Science! Today, our focus was on the senses of taste and smell and how they work together to create our perception of flavor. We also revisited our S.A.V.Y. class creed and reviewed classroom and lab rules to ensure a safe and respectful learning environment. Here’s a recap...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, Numbers Big and Small (3rd – 4th)
Jul. 25, 2024—We had another fun day with these SAVY math students! Today we started with the book Your Place in the Universe by David Chin. We have explored large numbers, and this book compares large sizes. (For example, how do 8-year-olds, ostriches, giraffes, California Redwoods, skyscrapers, Mt. Everest, galaxy clusters, and the universe compare in size?)...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, Intro to Coding (1st-2nd)
Jul. 25, 2024—Today we had fun in our learning! We started the day by playing the Animal Toss Game with our Sphero. Mrs. Lewis showed the class how to write the code for this toss game using the if/then/else block and the loop block. We circled up and tossed Sphero to each other like a game of...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, Creative Contraptions (1st-2nd)
Jul. 25, 2024—Work, work, work! How can we overcome challenges and solve problems with work that is more effective, efficient, and… less work? As promised to your students, we have experienced a gentle handoff of class workload this week. Ms. Byrd and Ms. Hannah carried the instructional load on Monday, but each day the students have been...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, Urban Transportation and Data Analytics (7th – 8th)
Jul. 24, 2024—Today, our discussion focus was the critical issues in transportation, which include congestion, infrastructure, finance, energy, environment and climate change, equity, resilience to extreme weather, safety, institutions, and human and intellectual capital. Congestion emerged as a major concern, especially considering that the U.S. ranks as the most congested developed country, with costs reaching nearly...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, Science Communication and Immunology (7th – 8th)
Jul. 24, 2024—I can’t believe the week is more than halfway over! Today was a fun and exciting day filled with interactive games and activities. We continued our discussion of vaccines – how they work, why they work, and how they improve the immune system. We also talked about superbugs – how bacteria can mutate, particularly with...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, How to Change the World: Social Movements & Collective Action (7th – 8th)
Jul. 24, 2024—Dear Parents, In today’s class, we continued our journey to understand how social movements create change in our world! Different Disciplines: Approaches to the Study of Social Movements Our focus today was on understanding the unique perspectives and methodologies of cultural anthropology, sociology, history, and political science. Each academic discipline offers distinct research tools and...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, Intro to Engineering (Shuman & Green) (3rd – 4th)
Jul. 24, 2024—Yesterday, students learned about the difficulties of containing water in a dam and controlling its release. They reflected on the importance of precision in engineering. We built on this concept this morning as we started covering Mechanical Engineering and some of its sub-types. Mechanical engineering involves anything that is supposed to move, like engines, robots,...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, Individuality vs Conformity (3rd – 4th)
Jul. 24, 2024—Hello SAVY families! It’s the middle of the week and time for us to think practically about how to engage and employ our individualities, personalities, and unique skills to persuade, inspire, and contribute to the world around us. That means today and our last two days will involve afternoon projects where we get to...
Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 3, The Story of you! Autobiography (3rd – 4th)
Jul. 24, 2024—It was a wonderful Wednesday for us on day 3! We started our day by celebrating one of our students’ birthdays and getting into groups with other students that they don’t usually work with and they had to find something that everyone in the group had in common! They came up with common threads such...