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Fifth Grade Robots Problem Solve

2/28/2018

 
In the final problem, students are solving has a real world connection to the Fukushima nuclear power plant damaged during the 2011 tsunami. Students designed their own playing fields that required a third of it to be covered in "water"  and voted as a class for their favorite four designs to build out of colored paper. To be successful at solving this design problem,  teams needed to collect at least five colored cubes (nuclear waste) from the playing field in under two minutes.  Students worked with their team to design a robot that could collect the hazardous waste blocks and drop them into a collection zone while avoiding the water hazards in under two minutes. ​

Egg Passenger Collision Tests

2/26/2018

 
Students have been following the design process to take what they've learned about vehicle safety, collisions and potential and kinetic energy to create a vehicle design that would protect an egg passenger in a collision. Students were very excited to finally test out their final designs with a real egg today in PLTW! Groups took turns placing their egg passenger into their vehicle and sending it down a ramp into a cement wall. Each group took a Slo-Pro video of their trial so they could watch back the collision and see what went well or and what they would like to improve about their design. There were so many great safety features on the designs based on what we have learned this module including seat belts, air bags, bumpers and additional weight from tires or additional wheels to prevent cars from tipping over. I was impressed with so many unique designs that followed the design criteria and constraints. Great job everyone!
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Egg Passengers
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Mr. Yenor's Class Designs
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Ms. Asher's Class Designs

Fourth Grade Collisions

2/22/2018

 
Fourth graders continued to learn  about kinetic and potential energy  by building a basic egg cart. They released the egg cart from different heights on a ramp and collected data on how far the vehicle traveled from each of the different starting positions. Students discovered that more potential energy lead to a faster speed and a further distance traveled for their vehicles. Next students learned about two different types of collisions, elastic and inelastic. They then build a second cart and and had the opportunity to collide these two vehicles on a ramp from different heights to observe  different types of collisions created. In the last collision activity students added weight to their vehicles so they could observe how different size vehicles can change the types of collisions created. 
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Using Robots to Complete Tasks

2/20/2018

 
Fifth graders have successfully built their robot chassis and practiced navigating their robot with a controller. Their first robotic task to complete involved collecting three blocks in under two minutes on a playing field. Students had to work with their team to design a robot that could help them accomplish this task. They then had to run three trials to test their design. I so proud to report that all teams were successful at designing their robot to complete this task! One team even figured out a design that allow them to collect the blocks in only 15 seconds!

Third Grade Coding

2/15/2018

 
Third graders have loved getting to use the Hopscotch app to help them code and build programs. Students began by learning how to use the basic Hopscotch programming blocks. Then students worked with a partner to create a program that could make their character draw a square. Many students even figured out how to create programs that made their character draw different shapes like hexagons and triangles too! We learned about the coordinate grid and the difference between the X axis and Y axis and how they can be useful in programming to plot coordinates for characters. Next students worked with a partner using pair programming to build a basic game on their tablet. This basic game included learning how to program different functions and variables including how to have multiple character lives, how to add a game timer and how to create a "you win" or "you lose" message appear on the screen. 
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Robotics Begins in Fifth Grade

2/7/2018

 
Fifth graders are very excited to have started robotics in Project Lead the Way. Students researched different types of robots and discovered how they can do dull, dangerous and dirty work for humans. After learning about robots, students begin using our Vex robotics kits to design and build a toy with moving parts out of Vex pieces. They  came up with some very creative designs including an ice cream cone on wheels, complex fidget spinner, transforming boat and a helicopter! Lastly, students worked with their team to build a testbed that they will use to observe how inputs and outputs work with the different sensors and a robot controller. I'm really looking forward to our robotics modules with these students!
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Energy and Collisions in Fourth Grade

2/5/2018

 
Fourth graders at Logan kicked off Project Lead the Way with a demonstration that sent an egg cart down a ramp and crashing into pieces! As you can imagine, the students loved it! The goal of this module is for students to build a vehicle that can protect an egg passenger when is goes down a ramp and collides with a cement wall. Students started working towards this goal by learning about seatbelt and airbag safety features currently used in vehicles. They created a Popplet about what they discovered and started to think about how these features could apply to their egg car designs. Next students learned about potential and kinetic energy and even got to explore with the Angry Birds app to identify examples of each type. 
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Project Lead the Way Begins at Logan

2/2/2018

 
Third grade started their computer science module this week in Project Lead the Way. Students loved getting to revisit the game, Rosie's Run Time to review how to program and give step by step directions.

Next we learned about conditionals and functions in programming. Students then worked together to play a new game called Rosie's Path that required them to use repeat loops, conditionals and functions in their program to get Rosie home.

Next week students will learn how to use Hopscotch to code and create programs on their iPads!
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    Author

    This is my tenth year teaching and my second with Ann Arbor Public Schools.  I spent the first eight years of my teaching career as a K-8 technology teacher. I joined AAPS last year as a Media Specialist and I am thrilled to be a part of PLTW this year! In my spare time I enjoy going to the gym, baking and spending time with family and friends!

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