Mammalian Engineering in Action

The Rieke Kinders had a special guest visitor from Tryon Creek State Park who taught them about an amazing mammalian engineer - beavers!  The students were able to share what they knew about beaver like strong teeth, webbed feet, paddle tail and took a close look at these features on the visiting mounted animal.  In the lesson we were able to connect these adaptations to how beavers can change a habitat and help many animals in the wild such as creating ponds and clearing trees to allow for new growth.  The students were then asked to take the beaver engineering challenge - how would you design a mini dam with sticks and mud?  What followed was muddy teamwork, fun, and a new appreciation for our local mammalian engineer!

STEAM Night

Last week Woodlawn celebrated it's first year as a STEAM-focused school.  Around 300 students, families, and community members attended the evening STEAM event which included tinkering stations by the Studio-2-Schools program, music performances by the Right Brain Initiative, and robotics demonstration by two First Tech Challenge teams, including the world champion team Hot Wired.  In addition, each grade offered the families an engineering challenge to complete that evening including 'What is the best design for a straw rocket?', 'Can you create a circuit to power a music box?', 'What is the best way to design a truss bridge?' 

I want to send out a thank you to all who helped make our first STEAM Night a success - Woodlawn staff, Blueprint Foundation, Children's Museum, Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project, Studio-2-Schools program, Batteries in Black Robotics Team, US Fish and Wildlife Services, Hot Wired Robotics Team, Right Brain Initiative, First Lego League, and EG Robotics. And a final BIG thank you to the wonderful Woodlawn community, your support and enthusiasm is amazing!

First year as a STEAM-focused school

Over the 2015-16 school year, students and staff at Woodlawn were able to connect and add creativity, collaboration, hands-on experiences, and problem solving to our science units.  In May, we celebrated our STEAM work by looking back at our students' experiences and planned ahead for the next year!

What planet would you create?

Our 2nd graders were asked the question - if you were able to discover a new planet, what would it be like?  They learned about planets in our solar system as well as other exoplanets, and started drawing what their planet would look like from space.  Each week they were able to connect their science studies with the project - weather, landforms, habitat, food chains.  They were also able to draw from their own experience and dreams as they wrote about what type of house they would built for their families and what food they would like to eat on their planet.  All of their ideas where eventually put together in a 'travel brochure' for their planet.

As an extension to the project was a planet art activity so they could touch, design, and see their special planet.  Using paper mache over Starbucks plastic lids, each student had their own  half dome to decorate.

Here's a sneak peak at the plans for the Woodlawn STEAM Night - Thursday, May 12th from 5:45-8pm.