SAGE UPDATE November 4, 2011

Google Sketch-up

Google Sketch-up allows users to create 3-D objects online.  It can be used for activities as simple as creating a 3-D box, and for complex activities such as recreating 3-D depictions of historic buildings or streets scenes.  Some high school teachers are actually having their students create a building from their community's past as they learn state and local history. Amazingly, people who create the buildings can have them added to Google Earth.

Experimenting with Sketch-up is this week's optional activity for SAGE  students.  You will need to download the application onto your computer.  If your children create drawings, they can e-mail me a picture of whatever they create. 




Max was the first to send in a creation. Here's his building.



Eric created a chair.  You can see how versitile the program is.

5th Grade

Teams of 5th graders began their initial experiments to assist us in determining the best quality paper towel brand of our four mystery brands.  Three of the brands are "leading brands" -- you can take my word on that -- and, one is a store brand. This go-around, we're testing for absorbency.  In a few weeks, we'll begin testing the wet strength of each product.  Along the way, students will learn how to design and conduct an experiment using the scientific method.  In addition, students will learn the value of using the scientific method.  

At the same time, our students are bouncing around the idea of creating different videos to get the idea of "Caveat Emptor" out to their schoolmates. Some are thinking of superhero sketches, while others are toying with the idea of a newscast.  We'll see if we can put our creative and technical powers together to come up with some video productions over the next few months.

  

Students at Grand Ridge conducting the initial absorbency experiments.



 

4th Grade

This week, teams finalized their lists of the top 30 buildings, and at Grand Ridge we began our process to determine the class's top 30 by compiling our scores into one large spreadsheet. 

In addtion to the work to determine the buildings in our community, we continued to talk about our BIG 4 questions for the year.  This week's focus was on:  "What makes a successful community?"  That might be an interesting subject for a car ride this week.  It would be great for your son or daughter to hear what you think about the issue.


 

Members of our Creekside class working on their "Top 30" list.

  

Grand Ridge students discuss the attributes of one of the 6 Polyhedraville basic polygons during their gallery walk.



















3rd Grade Students in 3rd grade explored the world of fingerprints this week.  Students paired up to learn about the 3 general types of fingerprints, and then examined their own prints to determine the types for each of the 10 prints. What type of prints did your child have?  Were they all the same type?  Did their prediction about the type(s) they have hit the mark?  All these questions were discovered this week. 

Determining her thumb print.

Students learned about the types of prints and then predicted the type(s) they'd have before examining their prints.  Here, the student is entering his prediction.