Grade 5 Category
Fall SAVY 2018, Day 1 – Psychology 101 (5th/6th)
Oct. 1, 2018—Hello SAVY Parents, It was a wonderful first day in Psychology 101. We have been anxiously awaiting today, and it was great to finally meet each and every one of your students. In our first day, we laid the groundwork for this course. We got to know one another through some ice breakers and surveys...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 5 – Field Ecology (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 27, 2018—Dear Parents, Today was the final day of the Field Ecology SAVY course! Our focus for today was on how we as humans impact the world around us. Your children discussed the roles of both invasive species and urbanization on the environment and even came up with ways to mitigate these problems. We had a...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 4 – Field Ecology (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 26, 2018—Ahoy parents! Water day made a splash! Today we dove into the world of aquatic ecology! Since most of the world’s water is saltwater, we began the day with discussions on ocean circulation and the impacts it has on different ecosystems. We talked about water density and how salinity (or saltiness) affects density and how...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 4 – Theory, Criticism, and The Force (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 26, 2018—To remind ourselves of Saussure’s signifier, signified, and sign, we played a game where students were tasked with identifying signifiers from certain characters or scenes from A New Hope. We also clarified that the endless chain of signification is not mere free-association. The chain of signification leads to larger, more encompassing concepts as one travels...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 3 – Field Ecology (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 25, 2018—Dear Parents, We were very excited today for Microbe Day! We taught the kids all about microbes in the world around us and how they fit into the larger ecosystem. They learned about microbial myths and facts, characteristics of microbes, and their applications. They also learned how to look at microbial plates under the microscope...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 3 – Theory, Criticism, and The Force (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 25, 2018—What a day! We covered a significant amount of content during our session. Your students should have a wealth of ideas, concepts, and terminology to share around the dinner table this evening, as well as a number of different and unexpected critical responses to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. We began our class...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 2 – Field Ecology (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 24, 2018—Dear Parents, Everyday this week is covering a different range of biological diversity! Today your children learned about the bugs and birds in the world around us. Both insects and birds play huge roles in ecology. Your children read scientific literature and became scientific advisors for a leading mosquito control company. They learned about the...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 2 – Theory, Criticism, and The Force (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 24, 2018—We began with a quick review of some major concepts: criticism, formalism, and structuralism. In order to recognize some distinctions between formalism and structuralism, we turned to Plato and his Forms. We used the metaphor of a cookie with M&M’s scattered throughout: some M&M’s are on the top, some in the middle, and some are...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 1 – Field Ecology (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 23, 2018—Dear Parents, We are so excited to meet your kids this week in SAVY and excited to show them the principles of ecology in our course, Land, Sea, and Air! We are a team of five instructors, four graduate students and one postdoctoral fellow, each with expertise on a different topic within ecology. This morning,...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 1 – Theory, Criticism, and The Force (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 23, 2018—What a wonderful first day! On behalf of my teaching assistant (Emily) and myself, know that it was a pleasure to meet your students and to see their personalities shine. We started with a getting-to-know you ice breaker, an activity that required everyone to share something about themselves (that was not school related) and who...