| | Congratulations to our Future Cities GEM (Gems-Emeralds-Metroville) teams competed at ASU-Tempe Campus last Saturday, Jan 17th. They did their best and definitely rocked their presentation! Thank you dear parents for your support! It was so much fun! |
Thank you, 2014! Welcome, 2015!
The First Semester has been a great one for learning so far, and our Wildcat GEMS are shining in every direction! I am super proud of all of you, my precious GEMS!
Our semester ended on a festive mood with a bunch of our GEMS participating in all of the Pep Assembly activities as well as winning a gift cert (hurray, Cole!). After which we had a culminating activity for our Math, which we tied up with TECH lab, on fractals (see below) and the presentation of each team's project. Then, finally the luncheon celebration organized by Taylor and her team (Adrianna & Valerie). Mrs Skutnik was very gracious to help out during the busy occasion. There were singing (led by Dakota, Megan & Valerie) as well as Secret Santa. Thank you all for all the support you have all extended to our class during these events.
You all deserve a great Winter Break with your family... have a fun and safe one!
Here's the look at our productive 1st Semester...
Student GEMS: Voted based on Wildcat PAWS' 4A standard
August's GEMS: Colton M (Aug SOM), Quinton C, Corbyn C, & Aaron S.
September GEMS: Dakota R (Sep SOM), Truitt R (Oct SOM), & Zach B (Nov SOM)
October GEMS: Kobe M & Valerie H.
November GEMS: Tyler M & Colin C.
December GEMS: Genice R.
Congratulations, we are proud of you! And the GEMS' Wildcat Adventure continues...
PBL-STEM Labs:
The countdown is on for the Aerospace Challenge and Future Cities Competition!
During the last week of the 1st quarter, we ran our STEM Labs with Engineering Design activities in class to prepare for the second quarter STEM sessions for the team challenges.
This final week of the semester, we interviewed via Video Conferencing,NASA Glenn Space Research Center to learn more about "Living & Working in Space, as well as the current researches conducted via the International Space Station (ISS) that will help us plan for our Aerospace Challenge project.
Then we ended the semester with the team presentations of all 5 STEM projects. Our principal, Mrs Menlove, and Dean of Students, Mrs. Nichols were so impressed of the projects and the presentations they witnessed.
| 1st Quarter Our Project-Based Learning (PBL) sessions as end-of-the-1st-quarter activities took on a pre-engineering twist: 1st quarter math topics on ratio & proportion (solving for scale factors), and numerical expressions (evaluating exponents) are applied into our team project as we get a taste of being future architects, engineers and city planners when we design, engineer and model our future cities, considering different issues our generation will likely be facing in the future based on current trends. | |
Likewise, we applied our social studies topic on ancient civilizations (where our community experts on these ancient civilizations from Phoenix Art Museum visited us) into the community planning for our future cities, as well as the history of agricultural technology development into our research paper on urban agriculture as a theme of this year's team project..(See team presentations photos below).
| | Engineering concepts such as forces and structures are some of the topics introduced during our STEM labs. These were the topics explored during the week after Fall break, when GEMS Class hosted the STEM Camps for 6th graders who did not attend Science Camp. |
| 2nd Quarter Apart from our NASA expert interviews, our PBL sessions also included parent experts sharing their time and talents to mentor our students on content-context based learning on their team projects:
We will be bringing in more expertise in the 3rd quarter as we prepare for the competitions which are drawing close. Let me know if you can volunteer to help. Also, we will be needing metallic spray paints as well as green & gray colors. | SAVE THE DATE:
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| Tech-Time: The Class successfully completed the Hour of Codes @ CODE.ORG (Coding Frozen) and Beyond! We are now exploring block-based computer programming with MIT's scratch platform, for both game design and app development. And as an extension of our lesson on function relationships, we have explored fractals as functions where students 'cracked the codes' (discovered linear equations) behind the iterations (n) and the resulting image (y). With these came the fractal generators that we tried with winter-themed stars & snowflakes, among others. | Coming soon in Q3: MS/Google Spreadsheets MS Access (Database) Photoshop |
I am starting a lunch Robotics club for girls this 2nd semester. Any female student in class that are interested to do this can join for 10-15 min each day.
Also, AzMerit Assessment is coming this Spring. Check out the following resources: overview, CBA, EOC, and more. Samples: ELA & Math. Similar practice tests: ELA & Math.
Also, AzMerit Assessment is coming this Spring. Check out the following resources: overview, CBA, EOC, and more. Samples: ELA & Math. Similar practice tests: ELA & Math.
| Math Art Portfolios: Grid Art Topic: Ratio (Scale Factor - Enlarge a picture) Art Skill: Sketching/Pencil Drawing Medium: Pencil Golden Ratio Topic: Ratio: Fibonnacci Sequence Art Skill: Mixed Media Media: Mixed Fraction Mosaic Topic: Fraction-Percent-Decimal Art Skill: Color Blending/Contrast Media: Pastel Oil Drawing | |
Remembering 911...
| Phoenix Arts Museum: Three Docents from the Phoenix Arts Museum visited our class to present art appreciation presentation about the Egyptian Art (Ms Debbie Stoll, above), Ancient Chinese Art (Ms Sherry Kapoot, not in picture), and Ancient Greek & Roman Art (Ms Sylvia Wright, below). We are so privilege to have them come to our class as we study the ancient civilizations and helped us expand our learning of ancient history. | Egyptian Art Figure out the name printed on each CARTOUCHE. Use the guide in the middle to help you decode the Egyptian hieroglyphics.  |
Ancient Civilization Team Presentations: Egypt, China, Americas, Greece & Rome
Engineering Design
Challenge: Design a shoe made of recycled materials
Challenge: Design a shoe made of recycled materials
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