Preparing to share far & wide

Now that all of the schools participating in the Young Authors Workshop have completed the sessions with their facilitators, they’re going to share what they learned with each other and everyone else.

They’re going to do that using a zine (more on what that is later), with each classroom creating a part of a single publication, collaborating from afar. Dr. Coppins from SHARP Literacy and Adam Carr visited each of the classrooms to help the students get started on their submission.

We’ll be able to share the final product soon!

Dispatch #2 from MESA and Professor Stern

Today we learned about the audio transduction (which is the passing of sound), different parts in your ears (like the cochlea), and how the ear drum works. Our ears have a lot of parts that move inside.

We went outside to make videos again. We had to be quiet in the first video, and loud in the second video. It didn’t really work for us because we were having computer problems. The examples he showed were neat, and I wish ours would have worked.

Questions we have now:

-How can an ear drum bust?

-How loud does it have to be for an ear drum to pop?

-Why do we have so many parts in our ears?

-Why do some of the ear parts move?

-How many inches are the bones?

-Is Nathanial coming again?

-How can I do that at home (what was done with our class?)

-How did you make the video?

MESA Report #1: Motion sensors & the math of colors

 

Nathaniel Stern is an artist and writer. He came to our classroom and showed us that when you zoom in on a picture it ends up being a bunch little squares called “pixels”. He taught us that a pixel is a “very small area of illumination on a display, one of many from which an image is composed”. He also told us that white is 1, black is 0, and grey is .5.

After Mr. Stern’s presentation we made videos in our school courtyard. It was fun because we learned how to make motion video recorder just with a camera. We learned that you could use anything with a motion recorder. Some groups did a dance and made scary faces. My group did a dance, and then we saw pixels back in the classoom. When we were in the courtyard we learned to work together.

One of our favorite parts of the experience was learning about pixels. We also liked learning about the motion sensor. Plus we got to shoot our own motion video with our groups. We liked to learn the math of colors. For example white equals 1, black equals 0, and gray equals .5. Last but not least we got notebooks to write down things that we learned, and we can write more things when Mr. Stern comes back. We hope that you can learn the same.

We have questions about the next time you come. What will be our next project/activity? What will we do in the class? Will the project take place outside again? What will the subject be this time? Just like with the camera, will you bring anything else? Those are some questions that we have right now.

Bonus videos of the action that took place during the session:

Intro to Milwaukee Environmental Science Academy

Have you heard about Milwaukee Environmental Sciences Academy? Here at M.E.S.A. everyone is one big crew. We call ourselves “Crew 6600”. M.E.S.A. is a school that has your grades high to the sky! It is an Expeditionary Learning school, and that makes for a great experience.

One interesting thing about our school is that we have a courtyard cistern. The courtyard is also home to several gardening beds. Planting is done by each grade in the spring, and in the summer classmates help pick out the organic vegetables in the school’s garden. When we harvest our vegetables we get to eat them. Another unique thing about our school is that we have a Toyota Family Learning program where parents get to learn more about our school and do projects. We wear uniforms each day so we all look the same. Our shirts have a yellow jacket on it as that is our school mascot. The best part is the staff cares about our learning.

M.E.S.A is a great place to learn. In class we have LLI groups so kids can get better at reading. It is very easy to learn new things because the teachers are so smart and creative. We have 1st grade buddies that we meet with on Friday afternoons. Each month we try to donate gifts to our neighbors. In October we left decorated pumpkins at their homes. In November we left “thankful rocks”. In December we delivered hand­made Christmas ornaments. We skipped January because it was cold and busy. We made Valentines in February. We’re very proud of our school and classroom.

All kinds of cool at Discovery World

Students in Matt Richardson’s workshop learned about digital privacy, which they demonstrate by covering their faces

The “Robochix” from St. Joan Antida High School paid us a visit to demonstrate their award-winning robots

Nathaniel Stern presents on creating interactive multi-media images with help from a marlin hanging on the wall

Michael McNeary leads the students in an engineering experiment involving batteries and spinning metal coils

Dina & Marcela Garcia dress the part to teach students about the effect of sugary beverages on their teeth

Jess Goehner leads students as they custom print their own t-shirts

Kicking off the 2016 YAW — Full STEAM ahead!

Full STEAM ahead!

On the morning of Jan 25, 2016, 4th & 5th graders from around Milwaukee gathered at Discovery World to kickoff an exciting project — SHARP Literacy’s 2016 Young Authors Workshop!

Throughout the next few months, students will be working with local professionals to engage in projects exploring STEAM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

Participating schools are La Causa, Milwaukee Environmental Sciences Academy, Metcalfe Elementary School, Notre Dame, and Trowbridge School of Discovery and Technology.

The local professionals and project facilitators are an impressive and diverse group who have ambitious plans for the students:

• Dina & Marcela Garcia, PhD candidate and health activist
  • Eggcellent Grillz explores the effects of sugary beverages on teeth

• Nathaniel Stern, Artist and Educator at UW-Milwaukee
  • Creating interactive multimedia images

• Matt Richardson, CEO/Visioneer at SmartWave
  • Telling a story with data using Human Centered Design Methods

• Jess Goehner, Fashion Designer and Owner/CEO of Directive
  • Mono prints and screen printing tessellations

• Michael McNeary, Principal Test Systems Engineer
  • Demonstrations using levitations, gyroscopes and magnets

On this blog, you can follow the project as it unfolds. Keep checking back throughout the next few months to hear updates from each classroom, as they share their many discoveries.

Lynda Kohler, President/CEO of SHARP Literacy, welcomes the students before they head off to engage in experiments and activities.