Today NC School of Science and Math‘s Rocket Team made a visit to CCMMS. The Durham Rocket Team has recently worked with the NASA’s Student Launch Initiative and came to our school to demonstrate how rockets work. Students heard from the Rocket Team on the mechanics of building a rocket and the science involved in lift off and flight. Teams of students were also able to launch air powered rockets.
On April 24th CCMMS 6th and 8th graders participated in Risk Fest 2013. Risk Fest is a time for students, teachers, parents, agencies, companies, and individuals to get involved in the use of risk management strategies, tools, and practices to help preserve our urban and rural communities. Every year we set the goal of becoming better managers of agricultural, environmental, and energy related risks!
This year I was able to take a group of 6th grades to Risk Fest. Here are some of the activities we participated in.
“Risk Reduction on the Farm” presented by Dr. Stephan Shaefbauer from the USDA APHIS program. She taught us about bio-security on farms. Participating in a farming activity we witnessed how viruses spread in a farming community.
What is my risk for disease? We found out when we visited Ms. Rachel Mills a genetic counselor from Duke University. She talked with the group about how we can use our genes and gene history to inform us of our health. If we know what our health risks are she said, we can make changes to our lifestyle to help prevent certain diseases.
What kid doesn’t like to hang out with fireman? We heard from Mr. Chad Smith from the Raleigh Fire Department and how they prepare for fire and climate change. The students also got to take turns role playing and using the fire hose.
Traveling along the path we stopped to talk with Mr. Michael Gavazzi from the US Forest Service. He talked to use about the Loblobby Pine Tree and its importance to North Carolina’s agriculture. He also taught the students how to read the rings of a tree to determine its age. He also took us to the edge of Centennial’s woods and showed us new growth on pine trees as well as a spittle beetle.
Along the way we also allowed ourselves to get distracted and visit the Colgate Dental Van. The dentist on call passed out free toothbrushes and toothpaste to the students. Just in time we found Harris Tetter’s fruit stand where we sampled organic and conventional fruit.
On April 25th, all of the Root 5th graders participated in our 3rd annual Speedway Challenge. Working in teams, the students used their knowledge of Motion and Design concepts to engineer non-motorized vehicles that could travel down the “Root Canal Speedway Course.” Our main hallway is a series of inclined planes and plateaus so getting them to gain enough momentum was quite a challenge. The vehicle had to safely hold a block (as a passenger) and meet other constraints as well. There were trophies given for the 1st – 3rd place vehicles that traveled the farthest, ribbons for most creative design, most aerodynamic and fastest car. In addition, awards were given out for teamwork, perseverance and other important teamwork skills. Check out the photo gallery that was posted on the N & O website!
Posted by gduncan in 9-12
As part of our Early Release Day Staff Development in April, all Knightdale HS Professional Learning Teams were challenged to use the Engineering Design Process to solve a particular issue in their department.
Each PLT created a visual and all visuals were displayed in a gallery walk at the end of the day. Teachers were able to see a relevant example of how to use the Engineering Design Process in solving a real problem.
We have posted samples of the PLT visuals at our KHS STEM Workspace at https://khsstem.pbworks.com/edp-plt
Hilburn Academy recently held it’s Spring 2013 STEM Expo and our Grand Challenge focus was “Providing Access to Clean Water”. All projects related to the grand challenge and were presented to parents and community partners. Projects included having students design methods of transporting water, filtering and cleaning rain water, conserving personal water consumption, setting up habitats that provide fresh water for animals, in addition to modeling the flow of water through different landforms.
Along with our expo we had an interactive science set-up for families to experience. The Science Festival provided experiment kits through the Thorp Science Night Program. The kits had families making goo, designing parachutes, building marshmallow towers, germinating seeds in gloves, making bracelets according to one’s genes, and many more. Parents were extremely happy with the setup of the science kits and were very appreciative of how involved the community is with our expos.
Posted by East Cary in 6-8
East Cary Middle School Track 7-4 students held their Inventors Fair on Thursday, May 2 in the media center. Students presented projects and designs that included improvements on existing products as well as new products.
How do famine, disease, conflict, human rights, and social relationships have a global impact? Over the past few weeks seventh grade students have been investigating this question. They have explored different areas of the world to gain a better understanding of globalization and the issues people of the world face every day. As a culminating project students selected a topic, researched the topic using primary and secondary sources, and analyzed the information they learned.
To educate you, the parents and our CCMMS community about what they learned, students have utilized different multimedia and web 2.0 tools such as Animoto, Dipity, Glogster, Prezi, PowerPoint, Timetoast, Video, Voicethread, Word and the web template of Weebly. We invite you to take a look at their projects and commend both Mr. Millhoff and Mrs. Gambino and the students for their dedication and hard work. Their work can be viewed here.
Posted by rwilliams in 9-12
Teachers at East Wake School of Health Science recently made connections between the goals of three major educational initiatives. Groups of teachers worked with Post It Notes which had goals printed on them. Teachers were encouraged to group the goals into related categories. It was later revealed that the Post It Notes were color coded. Green Post It Notes were STEM goals, pink were goals from the 21st Century Skills, and blue were Common Core goals. A great discussion followed about how well these goals overlap. What a relief to realize that STEM is not a stand alone concept!
-
-
1 – A sample of the Post It Notes teachers received.
-
-
2 – An example of how teachers sorted their Post It Notes.
-
-
3 – An example of how teachers sorted their Post It Notes.
Click here to download this activity.
Posted by East Cary in 6-8
A Cary High student and former East Cary student recently constructed and installed six heavy duty wooden benches for an outdoor classroom on the edge of the wetlands area in the front of the school. As part of his journey to become an Eagle Scout, he contacted Dr. Gail Powell, eighth grade science teacher at East Cary, to coordinate the project.
The outdoor classroom will be available for all teachers to use. Because it is on the edge of the wetland areas, which is protected by law, students will learn about appropriate use and movement in that area in order not to trample the plants and wet soil behind the benches.
Posted by East Cary in 6-8
East Cary seventh graders on Tracks 1 and 3 presented their inventors fair projects on Tuesday, April 10. Students setup displays of possible inventions with plans, descriptions, and pictures for their classmates to view during the day and for their parents to view that evening.
Some of the inventions included the following:
- a pooper scooper with the bag already attached
- the doggie umbrella
- a mom’s helper stroller attachment
- the nifty nightstand with extra storage
- ultra hair, the new shampoo for great looking hair
- the cone cone, a no mess solution to sticky, drippy ice cream
- the shoe mop for cleaning your floors
Track 4 seventh graders will introduce their inventions on May 2nd.
