Happenings for May 21st-24th
8th Grade:
This week students are continuing to work on their awesome serving trays! They are working at a great pace and should be completed by the end of next week! Look for a fun activity for the last few days of school for our class to try.
Students were asked if they would like to bring in their own handles for their tray or they can use the paracord material we have to make handles. Also we have three colors of stain but students are welcomed to bring in their own paint or stain but not spray paint.
7th Grade:
We finish up creating our floor plan on smallblueprinter.com this week and begin to transfer over to our scaled drawing on paper for the rest of this week and all of next week. After that we will begin our model of our home using cardboard.
6th Grade:
This is our final week for students to test out their board games and then have their classmates evaluate their games. Next week our focus will be on learning about architecture and how to create a floor plan.
Happenings for May 14th-18th
8th Grade:
This week we will be making our sanding blocks so that we can use them to build and sand our serving trays. Any student who needed to do rewrites of their safety test will need to have them completed by the 14th!
7th Grade:
We begin our new unit on architecture this week and will continue this unit until the end of the semester! This week we will look at home styles and what floor plans are and what types of plans are created by architects.
6th Grade:
We continue to work on our board games this week and I am so excited to see how they turn out.
Happenings for May 7th-11th
8th Grade:
Students are working on safety when using hand tools, power tools and machines. This Friday is the safety test and then next week we will start using building our sanding blocks and then our serving trays!
7th Grade:
Students are working this last week on their paper roller coaster activity and will be testing their coasters for speed on Friday.
6th Grade:
Students have been working hard at creating rules and boards for their games. Students currently have 4 more working days to finish their boards, rules and test out their own boards before making any changes.
Happenings for April 30th – May 4th
8th Grade:
Students are finishing up their artificial arm models at the beginning of this week and then spending one school day without the use of an arm on Tuesday or Wednesday. We will next begin our final unit on tools, machines and safety later in the week.
Also, notebooks are due this week. Students should be looking to their agenda for the due dates.
7th Grade:
Students are continuing work on their paper roller coasters this week and next. Coasters will need to be completed for testing by May 10th!
6th Grade:
We are in full construction mode on our game boards this week and for the next two weeks. We will be testing game boards on or around May 24th.
Happenings for April 23rd-27th
Sorry for the delay everyone!
8th Grade:
Students are completing their presentations of commercials, turned in packets and then began learning about Biotechnology. In this new unit students are learning how biotechnology assists humans to extend their lives. It allows amputees to live normal lives and creates medicines to help us feel better.
7th Grade:
Students are constructing their paper roller coasters this week and next week. They will be focusing on how structures remain stable.
6th Grade:
We have completed our inventions activity and have begun working on manufacturing game boards. Students are learning how to construct rules in a sequential order with subheadings. Next week they will be formed into groups and working together to come up with a theme for their game. Take a look at examples below:
Happenings for April 16th-20th
6th Grade:
Students are finishing up their invention activity this week with A day classes turning in their project by Tuesday and B day classes turning in by Wednesday.
Upon turning in both parts of the assignment students are to go to this link to get a head start on the next unit: Manufacturing a board game: (copy and paste into the browser)
www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-Own-Board-Game/
8th Grade:
Students are in the process of finishing up their commercials. This is the final activity for their manufacturing unit. We will begin watching commercials on Thursday and finish watching them next Monday.
Next weeks unit will be on Biotechnology
7th Grade:
Students are beginning their new unit on structures. This unit is titled Paper Roller Coasters. Students will form groups of 3-4 and will create a roller coaster using a template. Each group will need a pack of card stock paper
(8 1/2″ x 11″ with 50 in a pack) and 2-3 rolls of clear tape. I will provide each group with one roll to get started. Paper can be purchase at Joannes or Michaels (look for sales). Examples below:
Once you have viewed these videos please try this coaster game: (copy and paste into your browser)
rollercoastergames.net/rollercoaster-creator-2/
Have Fun!
Happenings for April 9th-13th
8th Grade:
Student completed shoe models the week before break and will continue our unit on manufacturing by creating a commercial using their shoe model in their commercial and by using power point to create the commercial.
The commercial and the unit packet (including extra credit), will be due by April 20th. Our next unit will be on biotechnology and then we will work on safety with tools and machines in the technology lab.
7th Grade:
Students are finishing up their unit on typography and font by the end of this week.
Students are going to create their font on a large sheet of paper and then create a card using their font. Students are welcomed to bring in their own decorative paper, stickers and any other items they would like to use to create their card.
6th Grade:
Students were to turn in their research paper before break but since we had many students absent that week, papers will be due this coming week and grades for these papers will be on the 4th marking period grade, not the 3rd. This week and next are set aside for students to do the second part of this activity and that is to create a power point, model or a timeline of the invention the students researched.
Happenings for March 19-23
8th grade:
This week students are transitioning from creating their shoe design on paper to creating their shoe on CAD. Our focus will be to create the shoe and then begin to create the model so students need to consider if there is any material they may need which is not found in the technology lab.
7th Grade:
We continue this week with our PSA’s. As students finish their power points they should finish their packet and consider doing the extra credit found in the packet. We will watch each others PSA’s this week. Our next activity will be on typography, or fonts.
6th Grade:
We have discussed what technology means and we have looked at inventions to help give us an idea of how inventions and technology relate to each other. This week students will choose an invention they want to learn more about and work on research of their invention for their paper. The paper should be completed by next week which means it is one page long, double spaced and emailed to me.
Happenings for March 12th-16th
8th Grade:
This week we finish our first design using Sketchup for students. Here’s an example below:
We move into our manufacturing unit on Tuesday where students will be learning how manufacturing effects their lives. This unit will last approximately four weeks and in that time students will create a shoe manufacturing company, design a logo to represent their company, draw some design ideas for their shoe, create the shoe using sketchup and then create a model of the shoe using cardboard. The model will be of actual size. Once the model is completed students will take pictures of their shoes to be imported into a commercial they will create using powerpoint.
7th Grade:
Students have just completed their egg crash vehicle tests with three egg fatalities and two minor injuries. All in all the egg vehicles were creative and well constructed. Next up is our next unit on advertising and animation. This unit should take us around three weeks (until Easter break). We will create commercials based on public service announcements. To find some ideas take a look at this link:
www.psacentral.org/home
6th Grade:
Students have started working on their unit for Technology and Inventions. This week they finish their technology ABC sheet and begin their technology Pict-o-word posters. By the end of the week students should have chose an invention they would like to learn more about. Here are some websites to help you with your research:
www.history.com/topics/inventions
www.explainthatstuff.com/timeline.html
interestingengineering.com/35-inventions-that-changed-the-world
Happenings for March 5th- 9th
8th Grade:
Students have finished their unit on careers and wow do we have some ambitious students! Many have chosen careers in the health sciences, some are interested in law enforcement, artists, lawyers, graphic designers and interior designers!
Our next unit will be on how to use the Sketchup for students program so that we can learn how to create a product for our next unit which will be on manufacturing.
7th Grade:
Students are using this week to finish up their egg crash vehicles and then on Friday I will be bringing in raw eggs to test with their vehicle design.
Our next unit will be on advertising and animation and will take approximately three weeks, finishing by Easter break!
6th Grade:
Students have finished their unit on measuring skills and have begun the unit on history of inventions. This week we will look at some inventions both from my collection and from video. towards the end of the week students will chose an invention they want to learn more about and begin the assignment. The links to the assignment are listed below:
Unit packet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hMoO6WGzPDpbeda3QFgZBaicy40KmGRRM-euVzGjV5g/edit
Inventions paper:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dA0aK4R4pdqzg7wNdEadNVT5CICqDoUNhGIEa265uYg/edit
This unit should be completed after we come back from spring break.