The fifth grade sent "symbolic monarch butterflies" on a journey to Mexico to be looked after by school children there. We look forward to receiving a package of butterlies from students all over the country in the spiring. When we receive them, we will "tag" them to let their designers know where they have landed. See handouts and photos link for a photo of the class in Mexico who "looked after" our butterflies all last winter. For more information about this fascinating exchange, go to:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sm/index.html****************************************************************************************************
Fifth graders have explored science concepts through a simulated "Field Trip to the Moon" in 2009.
They learned about conditions for supporting life on the moon. They investigated the best landing sites for a lunar expedition and preared for possible moon emegencies. They studied energy sources and ecosystems on Earth to understand the needs and difficulties of designing a lunar colony. As a wrap-up, the students will become engineers to research, design, and build biodome models for a colony on the moon. Each biodome model will represent a different earthly biome. In addition, each student will have the opportunity to create a PowerPoint slideshow for their designated biome.
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Fifth graders in 2007-08 entered a moon crater challenge from NASA.
Their Challenge: As junior engineers, the student task was to design and build a small-scale, Earth-based launching device that can propel a standard projectile at various angles, creating a crater in “lunar soil.” Then, using the launching device, the students conducted an experiment to determine the angle of impact that excavates the greatest amount of subsurface “lunar soil.” See their designs on the handouts and photos page.
At the following website you can view a webcast that was shown on May 9, 2008. It includes our fifth grade designs in the production! It turns out that our designs were very similar to the actual LCross mission launchers.
http://quest.nasa.gov/challenges/lcross/index.html