Grade 5 Category
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 5 – Marvelous Mechanisms (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 20, 2018—This was the last day of Marvelous Mechanisms! We moved from analyzing four bar mechanisms to designing them. We learned two position rocker synthesis and two position coupler synthesis. These are two techniques to take desired limit positions of one link in a four bar, and come up with the positions of the other three links....
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 5 – Stellar Astronomy (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 20, 2018—What a great final day! To start, we went to the computer lab to engage in some real science using the Zooniverse citizen science project aggregator. The project we looked at was the Milky Way Project where we were learning about stellar birthplaces and death-places. Students found bubbles, bow shocks, yellowballs, and more! This site is...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 4 – Marvelous Mechanisms (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 19, 2018—We continued to hone our drafting skills today, this time with kinematic diagrams of various mechanisms. A kinematic diagram captures the motion of a linkage by representing pins as dots and links as straight lines. We drew a french fry cutter, a letterpress printing press, and a window hinge. Then, just for fun, we drew...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 4 – Stellar Astronomy (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 19, 2018—Let’s talk about light! Light is pretty much the only information we get from the Universe so we have to know how it works. At the start of our day, we discussed the different kinds of light (the electromagnetic spectrum) and what sorts of astronomical objects you can see with the different kinds of light. ...
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...
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...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 2 – Marvelous Mechanisms (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 17, 2018—Today in class, we continued our work on pulley systems. We made the leap from analyzing given systems to designing our own to satisfy relative motion requirements. We discovered how to make an output object move at a rate a whole number multiple of the input object’s rate. We discovered how to make both the input...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 2 – Stellar Astronomy (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 17, 2018—Today in Stellar Astronomy, we did a mixture of lecture and lab! The start of our day was all about basic stellar evolution where I showed pictures of various stages of star lifetimes. These pictures, as I had hoped, really got students thinking and asking questions! First we start with clouds of gas and dust...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 1 – Marvelous Mechanisms (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 16, 2018—The first day of Marvelous Mechanisms is finished! We had a fabulous time getting to know one another, drawing, and learning about the kinematics (motion analysis) of pulley systems. The picture shows the class materials the students have been using to sketch as well as formally draft their ideas. Each notebook has a pad of...
Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 1 – Stellar Astronomy (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 16, 2018—We had a mind blowing day in astronomy today! The students are so excited to learn and ask all of their questions about astronomy! We started out the day with introductions of each other – it’s great to learn what people have in common and to learn about something new. After discussing what topics we...