Grade 5 Category
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 1 – Unpacking the Magic of Harry Potter (Sarah B.) (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 8, 2019—Hello, SAVY parents! It was so wonderful to meet all of our young witches and wizards today! We had a wonderful first day getting to know each other and our subject matter for the week—the expansive world of Harry Potter. Today, we explored the ways that Harry Potter can be considered a cultural phenomenon, and...
SAVY 2019: Session 4, Day 1 – Puzzles and Problem Solving (Rising 5th/6th)
Jul. 8, 2019—The Puzzles and Problem Solving class first investigated the Ultimatum Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game) and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner’s_dilemma). After this introduction to game theory, the students then played a 2-player card game, attempting to determine the winning strategy. The problem goes like this: “Given a deck of 21 cards, players alternate turns by taking one, two,...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 5 – Powerful Programming (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 28, 2019—Our last day was bittersweet. We’ve had a great week and we can’t believe how quickly it passed. We offered feedback to our peers during a gallery walk of all of the models we’ve created and used it to make even more improvements to our own projects. While some students continued to edit their models...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 5 – Archetypes and Literature (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 28, 2019—On Friday morning we continued our investigation of the Hero’s Journey in light of a poem by Emily Dickinson, “We Never Know How High We Are,” which you can read here: https://poets.org/poem/we-never-know-how-high-we-are-1176. Since poetry is written to be savored, we read the poem several times, noticing new things each time: interesting words and phrases, questions...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 3 – Powerful Programming (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 26, 2019—Today was an exciting day at Powerful Programming. Yesterday, we noticed that many students wanted to code their agents to spread out and keep moving so today we played a game to simulate those actions and think about how we control those commands within our own bodies. Then we worked to turn those actions into...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 3 – Archetypes and Literature (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 26, 2019—Wow! What an exciting day we’ve had writing and exploring archetypes! We opened with a quick recap of Jung’s theory and a quick debate over whether or not Jung was correct. Is there really such a thing as a collective unconscious? There are significant variances in stories and symbols as we compare across cultures, and...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 2 – Powerful Programming (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 25, 2019—We had another amazing day at Powerful Programming. Students started the day with lots of wonderings, like “Could I make two turtles avoid each other?” so we gave them an opportunity to explore their ideas using NetLogo. Next, we created visual representations of our chosen organisms using Perler Beads, after which we transferred our creations...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 2 – Archetypes in Literature (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 25, 2019—It is obvious that our SAVY students are enjoying making new friends AND stretching their minds! We started the day with the puzzle of the Ship of Theseus: If a ship is rebuilt one plank at a time, is it still the same ship? Students considered how the Ship of Theseus related to the idea...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 1 – Powerful Programming (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 24, 2019—We had a great first day at Powerful Programming! Students made new friends and enjoyed learning to code. When we started most students said they didn’t know how to code and no one had coded in NetLogo before. By the end of the day, every student was able to make an agent replicate basic animal...
Summer SAVY 2019: Session 3, Day 1 – Archetypes in Literature (Rising 5th/6th)
Jun. 24, 2019—This morning, to get to know each other better, we talked about our personal heroes and why we consider those people to be heroes. This was a fun way to get to know each other better and consider qualities of heroes–one of the most common and compelling archetypes! Some heroes accomplish great feats of bravery,...