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Creating new life

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In Early Childhood, students have been counting the days until chicken eggs hatch
 
 
 
Right now, the eggs are in the incubator in the Early Childhood IDEA Lab.

 

It's a science lesson that also tests each class's counting, writing, observation and illustration skills. more on the early days of this project on the Young Kindergarten blog

 

In seventh and eighth grade, chickens are also being born.
 
 
 
 
These students, however, have a more Frankensteinian approach to creating new life.

 

For their robotics unit, students worked in pairs to coax animal-like behaviors out of LEGO Mindstorm kits.

 

The result was a menagerie of dogs that bark, parrots that perch, cats that catch mice, bats who are drawn to the dark, and, appropriately enough, a pair of chickens.
 
 
 
By letting students bring their biology knowledge into robotics, the lesson drew in every student - not just the ones who already loved to tinker.
 
 


The biology aspect of the lesson was flexible, too, leaving room for a vampire baby who giggles when its belly is tickled.
 
 
 
In their presentations, students were asked to reflect on what they experienced over the course of the project.

 

They reported mainly on lessons in collaboration, or in coding, or in managing frustration.
 
 
 
The students' imagination and wit was on display for all to see, but they didn't talk much about it.

 

In Gordon science classes, creativity is always important.
 
 
 
It's a given.

 

That's a lesson these students learn early.
 
 
 

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