SAVY Category
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 2) – Dive into Design
Jun. 28, 2016—Dear Parents: We had another wonderful day today in Dive Into Design! We began our day with a learning discussion on volume by using an aquarium to demonstrate space filled up with water. We discussed how to find the volume, and we led students to discover why it makes sense. We also did a quick...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 2) – What’s the Matter
Jun. 28, 2016—From hydrophobic sand to sodium polyacrelate and artificial snow polymer, we had a very exciting morning in What’s the Matter! Students began investing the physical properties of two cups of solid particles that looked similar enough but acted in very different ways when introduced to water. After recording our observations on a Venn diagram, we...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Fission and Fusion: Nuclear Engineering 101
Jun. 27, 2016—The theme of our very first Fission and Fusion session was really small things! We learned all about electrons, neutrons, and protons and how they make up the elements and compounds we interact with every day. Using marshmallows and toothpicks, each student made models of some common compounds. In addition to testing our ability to...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Fantasies of Change
Jun. 27, 2016—We began our class today to the strains of a recording of “We Shall Overcome” from the March on Washington of the Civil Rights Movement. Why were people able to sing “deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome” that day? Because they’d found others who agreed with their vision of the world...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Linguistics in Your Life
Jun. 27, 2016—We introduced our class today with some general discussions on language and misconceptions floating around about it. In the morning we covered differences between language and other forms of communication. After lunch we traveled back in time to hear how English sounded in the past and how it has changed. Later we explored our own...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Chemical Spill
Jun. 27, 2016—We had a fast-paced first day of SAVY studying Chemical Spills!, filled with lots of class participation. I’m gearing up for a full four more days of learning, stimulating conversations, and fun! We started the day by brainstorming about the different kinds of chemical spills that we encounter—everything from household chemical spills to spills that...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Poetry in Practice
Jun. 27, 2016—Gregory Orr writes that there are four temperaments in poetry. These four elements don’t have to all be present in a poem, but several should be to make a good poem. Today we learned what these four temperaments are–story, structure, music, and imagination–and we examined poetry that uses these elements. We read poetry by Emily...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Modeling Motion
Jun. 27, 2016—Dear parents and families, It was a great day in Modeling Motion! We began with a deep investigation of the motion of a few Lego NXT Robots, programmed to move differently. Students described the motion of their robot, and others tried to imitate how their robot must have moved, with their bodies. We gradually began...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Brain Blast
Jun. 27, 2016—Welcome to the first day of brain blast! We met our new neuroscientists and introduced them to the lab. After getting to know each other a little better and establishing our lab guidelines with students help, we started asking questions about the brain. This led us to realize we needed to do some research to...
Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 3, Day 1) – Dive into Design
Jun. 27, 2016—Dear Parents: Day one was a great start to our week! It was so nice to welcome back students who had been in my Entomology class last week. We began our day with students doing a Concept Map on measurement so we could get a starting point upon which to begin our course by checking...