Tuesday, November 6, 2012

STEM in Action - Nicole's Table

As we learned from trying to design sturdy tables out of newspaper, the engineering design process that we're learning about isn't always easy.  Our initial ideas may not always work.  As a scientist, and engineer, we must always try to figure out how to fix or build upon our designs.  This is part of what the new science focus in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is all about.

Nicole decided to put this into practice after our in-class table building exercise.  She went home, rethought her design, and came up with this!

Wow!  What a well built and designed table!  It's holding 62 books and 10 magazines!  It looks like it could probably hold some more, but I think Nicole's bookshelves are empty!

Kelsey also brought in a table (and a model TarPul) that she designed.  Savannah also decided to build a model TarPul for our class.  These are students that are really taking their learning above and beyond what we do in the classroom!  (We'll try to post pictures of their models as well!)  Imagine what these students will do in 20 years with more than just newspapers and some tape!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

How to Get to Mars

Here is the video that we discussed in class.  This is NOT Curiosity!  This is Spirit.