Stone Table STEM Club

Presentations: Wonderful presentations!  Centripetal Force, Jellybeans, Chocolate, Atoms Presentation Reminders: Provide an image or a hands-on example.   Highlight key-words, or use bullet points on an index card. Practice presenting before you come.   Project your voice, so that everyone can hear you.  (I usually say to bounce your voice off the back wall.) Science Time: We continued our unit on Simple machines this week.  This week we learned about wheels. This is the video we watched.  In our lab time we built balloon cars with wheels and axles.   Here is a link to learn more about wheels:   http://www.explainthatstuff.com/howwheelswork.html Math: Keep up the good work mastering facts!  I will be working this week to post more black belt math challenges. Please note: It is okay to stay on a level as long as it is necessary to master the material. Perhaps some students it will need to take several weeks to master +1 and +2 addition bef

Presentations: Great Job on the presentations! Presentation Reminders: Provide an image or a hands-on example.   Highlight key-words, or use bullet points on an index card. Practice presenting before you come.   Project your voice, so that everyone can hear you.  (I usually say to bounce your voice off the back wall.) Science Time: We continued our unit on Simple machines this week.  This week we learned about pulleys. This is the video we watched about pulleys.  It would be well worth watching again if you can fit it in. https://youtu.be/9T7tGosXM58 Here is another video.  It does a much better job of describing how pulleys work.   In our lab time, we placed pulleys on a rod and used the pulleys to help us lift our load.  Each time we added a pulley we were able to see that it helped us use a small force over a longer distance to lift a heavy load.  Here is a link to learn more about pulleys:   http://www.explainthatstuff.com/pulleys.html , 

Presentations: Here is some of the delight driven presentations we heard about today: Trees, Venus Fly Trap, Earthquakes. Presentation Reminders: Provide an image or a hands-on example.   Highlight key-words, or use bullet points on an index card. Practice presenting before you come Project your voice, so that everyone can hear you.  (I usually say to bounce your voice off the back wall.) Science Time: We started our unit on Simple machines this week.  We started with levers. This is the video we watched about levers.  It is silly but kept their attention.  It would be well worth watching again if you can fit it in. In our lab time we placed a long board on a fulcrum (jack-stand) and placed our load on one end (a concrete block)  We adjusted our beam in different ways to explain how a lever helps to overcome the resistance of the load.   Here are a couple of links about levers:   http://eschooltoday.com/science/simple-machines/what-is-a-lever.html  

Presentations: Here is some of the delight driven presentations we heard about today: rocks, hurricanes, chemical reactions, cotton, and compost. Presentation Reminders: Provide an image or a hands-on example.   Highlight key-words, or use bullet points on an index card. Practice presenting before you come Project your voice, so that everyone can hear you.  (I usually say to bounce your voice off the back wall.) Science Time: This week we introduced another natural force.  Magnetism.  We learned that magnetism is an invisible force or field.  This week we focused the magnetic field and on magnets.   Students learned that a magnet is a special material whose molecules are arranged so that their electrons spin in the same direction.  This molecular structure creates a magnetic force that flows from one side (or pole) to the other.   In class, we placed magnets under a piece of paper and sprinkled iron filings on top of the paper.  This allowed us to see the ma

Presentations: I am loving the presentations!  Today we learned about black holes, tasting foods, water cycle, tornadoes,  and volcanoes. In class, I asked for students to take a next step for their presentations.  They are doing a great job preparing and providing images, but they tend to speak to their written papers instead of to the class.   I would love for students to continue to prepare as they have beautifully done, but then to take the next two steps in presenting the material. Highlight papers or use bullet points on an index card. Practice presenting their presentation before they come.  Here is a video that covers presentation topics.  (BTW, It is funny that a video on presentation has no speech, but it does a nice job covering what we need to know and has some animation. : ) Science Time: This week was a review week.  We reviewed what we have been learning in class.  (Check back for a link to online flash cards that cover the following terms.)

Read below for a recap of our day.  Find science videos, Black Belt Math support material, and suggested homework. Note: It is best to view our blog on the computer. Presentations: Lots of great presentations today.  We learned about parrots, buoyancy, fingerprints, and a couple of great demonstrations.   Science Time: This week we learned about Potential Energy (stored energy) and Kinetic Energy (the energy of motion.) Next, we made paper airplanes with rubber band force ( Tension Force.)   Here is the link to the paper airplane template just in case they would like to make another kind.  http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/ Math Time: Students teamed up and played a math game.  K-3 Played math Tic-Tack-Toe, and 4-6 Connect 4 Math. Keep up the good work mastering facts. Today we handed out math belts. Please note: It is okay to stay on a level as long as it is necessary to master the material. Perhaps some students it will need to take several weeks to master +