Engineering everywhere

It was a beautiful morning.

 

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade engineers could not be contained by their classrooms.

 

Sixth graders needed the funkiest water they could find.

 

They were testing their designs for water filters.

 

Materials included fabric, foam, sand, pebbles, steel wool, charcoal and paper.

 

Sample hypothesis: steel wool might be magnetic and help filter the iron.

 

Adding reactive agents allowed them to isolate and measure different contaminants in their before-and-after samples.

 

As science class transitioned into recess, several sixth graders stayed where they were.

 

In seventh grade, students took to halls for race car trials.

 

Teams had built very different cars from the same set of materials.

 

The initial mission was to maximize the speed and distance, with the weight varying according to the number of pennies piled in each car.

 

The time and distance varied, but they followed a simple pattern.

 

Groups with extra time began experimenting with design modifications.

 

One group pushed the limits so far that they broke through the two-dimensional plane.

 

They won't have the math and physics to fully analyse their flying car until next year.

 

In the eighth grade catapult project, however, students are ready for airborne missiles and parabolic paths.

 

The challenge for today was to get good data for the time and distance of an average Skittle launch.

 

Back at their desks, they'll use their data to determine the highest point their Skittles are reaching.

 

Eventually, their math will lead them to predict where their ideal average Skittle launch will land.

 

Next week, armed with their predictions, they'll head out to see if they can hit targets.

 

Nearby, fourth graders will be damming up the stream.

 

First graders will be rolling balls down the playground slide.

 

They'll all be practicing their science.

 

The whole campus will be their lab.
 

A third grade science adventure from today, on Gordon's Instagram