STEM May News

STEM at Fall RiverMay News This year has truly flown by for me at Fall River especially since I didn’t arrive untilOctober. Kindergarten, 1 st , and 2 nd grades have finished their unit of programmingBee Bots. Some classes chose to integrate their current unit with the Bee Botprogramming. Kindergarten added seeds to coding while second grade combinedtheir measurement with Bee Bots as well as collaborative groups as a bonus toworking together.Fifth grade finished their 3D printing unit with successful projects for the groupdesign challenge. Everyone agrees, for some reason, watching the 3D printerprint is both mesmerizing as well as calming. Must be the sound it makes as wellas watching a project come to life.STEM in May will focus trying out the Sphero robots. There are severalopportunities to learn to use the robots while getting through a mini golf obstaclecourse. Students will work in small groups with the Sphero, iPad and obstaclecourse they choose. Some will be simple programming while others will be morechallenging.The final STEM Lunch will meet on Wednesday, May 8, in the Kindergarten room.STEM lunch students have requested another go with Photo Origami. There aremany uses in Bioengineering, Medicine, and Robotics, for what we know asShrinky Dinks. Of course, the polymer differs depending on the use. The studentswill use a polymer that uses heat to make transformations. The biggest challengewill be to make a flat geometric shape that transforms under the heat lamp,turning it into a 3D shape.I have truly enjoyed my first year at Fall River. I will be back next year for moreSTEM at Fall River. Phyllis Ashe