Mrs. Saleh’s STEAM Class

Hello, STEAM Enrichment families!

The students spent the last week in my class working on their Tiny House projects. Students worked in pairs (or individually if they chose) to create a blueprint of a Tiny House. All blueprints were due last week for approval in order for them to continue on with the construction/engineering, math, and reading/research portion of the project. The Geometry portion of the project is due today (students are required to find the area and perimeter of each required object on their blueprints).

Students will spend this week reading about “The Tiny House Movement” and summarizing their research about it. They will also construct their Tiny House prototypes using a template that they were given in class. Students are required to construct a prototype model of their approved blueprint.

For “The Tiny House Movement” summary (at least TEN complete sentences), students must answer the following questions:

• What is a Tiny House? (brief description)
• What is the Tiny House Movement?
• Why is the Tiny House Movement becoming popular?
• Why are people choosing to live in Tiny Houses? (identify 3 reasons)
• What are the challenges to living in Tiny Houses? (identify 2 challenges)
• Who’s joining the Tiny House Movement and why? (identify 2 subgroups)

For their final project, students will display their blueprint, Geometry data, Tiny House prototype, and article summary on construction paper.

All projects should be completed by the end of each class period on Thursday, February 13.

Grade breakdown:

Blueprint = 10 points (Formative)
Geometry = 22 points (Formative)
Summary = 15 points (Formative)
Final Project = 50 points (Summative)

Happy Monday, everyone!

A notice was sent home with students last week that included some important dates for parents and students to keep in mind for these two weeks.

Here is a reminder for our Salina Intermediate families:

Friday January 17, 2020 – Half Day (All Students)
Monday January 20, 2020 – NO SCHOOL (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
Tuesday January 21, 2020 – Half Day (All Students)
*Also the first day of the new semester!
Wednesday January 22, 2020 – Half Day (SECONDARY ONLY)

https://www.thehenryford.org/current-events/calendar/martin-luther-king-day/

“Celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights leaders who had the extraordinary courage to ask for more from their nation. Bring family and friends on January 20, 2020 when Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation is open to the community absolutely FREE.

Sit in the Rosa Parks Bus and listen to the story of her brave act. Make your statement in the interactive program Minds on Freedom, highlighting the contributions of Dr. King, Mrs. Parks and civil rights champions like the Freedom Riders. Then explore the proud and often challenging evolution of American freedom, in the exhibit With Liberty and Justice for All. 

Make your own history on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with free museum admission, parking and activities.”

Monday ~ January 20, 2020 9:30 am – 5:00 pm

Taken from: https://mailchi.mp/mi-sci.org/celebrate-stem-with-free-admission-this-friday-453429?e=682016ba75

“Free General Admission During Colorful Exhibit This Saturday!

With the support of Axalta Coating Systems, Michigan Science Center is providing complimentary admission on Saturday, January 11, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. to celebrate science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and environmental stewardship. General admission tickets are free with pre-registration.

The community is welcome to experience “Conserve This Colorful Planet”, which aims to inspire guests to learn about water conservation in a colorful and engaging way. Through additional partnership with Ducks Unlimited and Six Rivers Conservancy, guests will be thrilled with a colorful exhibit experience, fun activities and education including access to 220+ hands-on exhibits, live demonstrations, a Smithsonian Spark!Lab, Kids Town, STEM Playground and more. 

Please register ahead of time by clicking the button below so we can better manage traffic flow and improve your overall experience. Public parking is available in the DIA lot on John R, just north of our building, for $7.”

I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Winter Break! I’m excited to welcome my students back to school!

In these next two weeks, we will be wrapping up the first semester of STEAM Enrichment. Students will spend time in class researching a STEM career of their choice and creating a visual profile display to present their research findings.

The requirements for the assignment are:

• Summary Overview
• Key Job Responsibilities
• Minimum Degree
• 2 Colleges in Michigan Offering This Program/Degree
• Subjects to Study in High School/College
• Median Salary
• Projected Job Growth
• Related Occupations
• List of Companies that Hire in this Area
• Relevant Photo
• Find Out More About This Career (Cite Your Sources)

Aside from this week’s Bellwork Check, this will be the last major grade students receive for this marking period.

The students have done a wonderful job in completing our housing unit which heavily covered the concepts of surface area and volume of rectangular and triangular prisms. As part of the unit, students used steps of the Engineering Design Process to create toy house prototypes using hands-on manipulatives in class (they were given constraints and criteria as well as a STEAM challenge!). We revisited some mathematical concepts after this lesson and the students did an exceptional job in mastering the content. This week, the students are working in teams to finalize their summative assessments on the housing unit.

The third and final Bellwork/Take 5 Notebook Check will take place during the week of January 13-17. Bellwork entries in the third Bellwork Check will cover the dates of November 4-January 10!

I wish all of my students and their families a relaxing & enjoyable Winter Break and a Happy New Year!

We wrapped up our Engineering Design Process unit this week!

Students created balloon-powered cars, created an Engineering Design Process Google Slides presentation, and took an EDP post-test to demonstrate mastery of the content.

Next week, we will participate in “Hour of Code” activities using the chromebooks. Students will have a chance to learn coding skills at their own pace and put them to use.

Your EDP Presentation Must:

*Contain a Title Page (1 slide)
*Describe how you used every step of the EDP to create your balloon-powered car (1 slide for each step x 8 steps = 8 slides)
*Contain a “Personal Reflection” page on the EDP and the results of
your project at the end (1 slide)

This means you will have a minimum total of 10 slides that will meet the above requirements.

Your EDP presentation MUST meet proper writing requirements (no spelling errors, no grammatical errors, etc.) and MUST incorporate technology through using Google Slides as the “program” for your presentation. You must also select different backgrounds, animations, transitions, etc.

You MUST also include the following content:
-A picture of your car/project (or similar picture)
-All of your data (distance, speed, time)

Over the next few days, students will use Chromebooks in class to create a Google Slides presentation about the Engineering Design Process and how it was used in their balloon-powered car projects.

Students will be given time to work on this in class in order to ask questions needed to complete the presentation successfully. They are also expected to finalize it at home (they may do so over the break).

The EDP Google Slides Presentation is due on Tuesday, December 3 (the first Tuesday after the break). It is a summative assessment and students will be given extra credit if they choose to present their presentation to the class.