How can we use engineering to design a city that is safe, healthy, sustainable and fun to live in? Students continued their role as Urban Planners and are following the engineering process to create a city that makes them happy! To define the problem, we began the process by thinking about things in our city we don’t like. We came up with air pollution, traffic, trash and dirty water. Before coming up with sustainable solutions, students learned that it is important to respect the natural environment where it exists. Students will design their city on a plot of land with a river or lake, so water doesn’t have to be pumped in from other places. We are planning for the future, and we want our city to have clean water and more green spaces.
How will people move around the city? Where will people go to have each of their needs met? People will be moving to our city, so we need sustainable transportation. Traffic is a problem, and we want to cut down on air pollution. What are we going to design for sustainable transportation? We don’t like people driving so many cars. Students came up sustainable solutions, such as bike paths, sidewalks, busses, trains. One student came up with solar powered energy from the sun, and we are all quite excited about that! To reduce air pollution, we learned about the SMT Rail (Smart Mass Transit Rail System), a raised transportation system that is much healthier for the environment. The SMT Rail will reduce traffic, noise pollution and is safe, fast, quiet and comfortable. Ask your child why they have chosen to include the SMT rail in their city plan.
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Students have started a new inquiry. Our inquiry originates with a problem that provides students with an opportunity to create something that contributes to the world’s knowledge. Our task is to design a city blueprint with sustainable urban development. We are going to design a city that solves the problem of urban sprawl and pollution; this inquiry mirrors the discipline of a City Planner. To prepare for this inquiry, students visited the Calgary Tower and were given an opportunity to see the overall city layout and a general view from above; this will help them to plan and design their own bird’s eye blueprint. To begin the research process, students worked together to answer two questions: What do people need? What do people want? For needs, students came up with clean air, nature, food, shelter, love and safety. Students also learned that it is important to have fun, and design a city that offers entertainment, parks and recreation. The purpose of this is to show what the students think belongs in the city, AND they need to justify it. Next week, we will be researching geographical features of a city and finding examples to support that work. Categories will include the following: Retail: Food/Groceries Housing Parks and Recreation Healthcare Restaurants Education Safety/Essential Services Entertainment Retail: Other/Clothing stores Places of worship Airport/ Sustainable Transportation Garbage and Recycling If you have not done so, please return your child's report card envelope to school, so that we can reuse it again at the end of the year. It is important to cut down on paper usage. Thank you!
On Wednesday, February 14th, it is Valentine's Day! We will provide students with some time to distribute cards if they would like to participate. This is an optional activity. We kindly ask that if your child chooses to participate, they include all students in the class. Thank you!
Students participated in a very exciting field study this week. We went to the Calgary Tower and learned a whole new perspective on Calgary’s architecture, history, and geography. Through this field study, students were encouraged to think about how the city of Calgary was constructed, how they would design their own city, as well as the importance of the buildings in our city. Students participated in a math challenge. They went on a high elevation scavenger hunt and searched for shapes that make up the Calgary Tower and the downtown core. They learned about what landmarks lie around the city of Calgary. Following the scavenger hunt, they created their own tower out of the shapes they found. Students participated in a Technology-Based Activity. They were paired up and given a tablet with a series of questions to answer as they moved around the Observation Deck. Questions covered local history, geography and the design and construction of the Tower. While students moved around the observation deck, they used their tablets to learn the four cardinal directions or cardinal points of the city, north, east, south, west.
Students continued their inquiry into Seasonal Change. While participating in field studies in both Fall and Winter, we observed rabbits in our community. The question was asked: How do animals survive the cold Winter? We decided to do some research and learned that there a four ways animals survive the cold:
More specifically, we learned that the rabbit has many interesting adaptations. An adaptation is a special skill that helps an animal to survive and do everything it needs to do. Students drew a rabbit and labeled some of their adaptations. Ask your child about rabbit adaptations are and how they are used. We read about the changes that happen during winter and what people do to get prepared and what animals do to get prepared. Our class read and had discussions about the differences between "hibernation, migration, and adaptation". We are learning: Hibernate means animals go into a deep sleep and their heart rate slows down. Migrate means animals move or travel to warmer climates because it is too cold for them Adaptation means animals make changes to their bodies or behaviours to help them survive the weather or conditions Many questions were asked during this inquiry: Why can't people hibernate? What do lizards do to adapt? What kind of animals migrate? Is it only birds? Where do animals go when they migrate? We thought about some of these questions as we went on our community walk to the local exercise park. Students were invited to use their senses to complete a scavenger hunt with their partners. Some things student noticed or commented: "We saw animals tracks that look like rabbits. They are close together." "It was harder to play at the park because it was slippery." "I saw 10 evergreen trees" "Bare trees means they have no leaves on them. Not trees for bears!" To prepare for our winter walk, students have been learning ways ways in which temperature changes affect us in our daily lives. One of the best ways to prepare for winter is to know what type of clothing to wear to stay warm. When the snow starts to fall and it is time to head outside to play, it is imperative that students know how to dress appropriately. Students came up with several items of clothing that people may wear in the winter. To support learning, ask your child comprehension questions. Some possible questions may include:
What should you wear before heading into the snow? Why would you dress this way in the snow? Students had fun dressing their snowman collage in warm winter clothes. They learned that there’s dressing for the cold AND there’s dressing for snow - two different things. Dressing for the cold involves some layered regular clothing — so wear those hoodies and sweaters — and then your basic coat/hat/mittens combo. Dressing for the snow involves the same stuff, but with more waterproofing. Students should also wear warm boots. It helps to wear snow pants and/or long underwear if the kids are going to be outside playing in the snow. As we come back from the Winter break, we continue with our design thinking work. With partners, students reviewed their blueprint designs of their bridges. Students used mainly cardboard, tape, plastic cups, and string to bring their designs into the first prototype. Some pairs built accordingly to the their designs while others found their creativity take over. Students came across some design flaws and successes. One pair in particular found it challenging to get their pillars to stay standing using tape. After attempts to try using glue stick, and turning the bridge prototype upside down to attach the pillars without much luck. Finally, an idea sparked and they cut slits into the cardboard pillars and discovered it stayed connected. The students were able to test their bridge. Other students became excited with their task that they added additional features such as a “drinking water pipe in case the bears got thirsty”. This design thinking task will provide us with practice for our next task; designing a useful product for our friend. As we embark on this, students are asked to continue to bring in building supplies to help them become successful. We will need items that can be reused and repurpose for other building and creating tasks. If you have any of the following materials that you are willing to donate, it would be greatly appreciated: -straws -tin foil -old buttons/nuts/bolts/screw -bubble wrap -small pieces of scrap fabric -empty toilet/paper towel rolls -plastic/styrofoam drinking cups -pipe cleaner Enjoy this video of a dramatic testing of an original bridge design. We finished building our houses, and they are amazing! Feel free to review the following vocabulary with your child: · Design – A plan of the shapes, sizes, colors and building materials needed to create something · Model – A small copy of a structure · Structure – A building or something built of parts arranged in a special way · Support – To hold up or keep something from falling What happens when you add Borax to boiling hot water?
Through this experiment, students learned to make a hypothesis: a tentative, testable answer to a scientific question or an "an educated guess." A hypothesis also has to be testable since the next step is to do an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis is right. A hypothesis leads to one or more predictions that can be tested by experimenting. Students created shimmering crystals using a simple chemical process. We supersaturated hot water with borax, lowered a pipe cleaner shape into the liquid, and left it suspended overnight. As the water cooled, the borax formed into crystals upon the pipe cleaner. Students learned that crystals are solids that are formed by a regular, repeating pattern of molecules connected together. Most crystals come in geometric shapes with sharp, straight edges and smooth sides. Students thought carefully about the parts of a bridge and what it might need in order to successfully carry a load of elephants (in this case, bears because elephants weren’t available).
We looked at books of various bridge structures, watched videos of different types of bridges and discussed why some all bridges look different. Students realized different structures are designed for different purposes such as bridges to allow for boats to cross under needs to be able to provide space so the boats do not crash, some bridges are meant just for cars to cross over bodies of water, and other bridges were designed with people in mind to walk across. In pairs, students drew two designs, labelled the parts, and made a list of possible materials to begin building their prototype. We discovered we have not collected enough building supplies for this task. Please continue to bring in materials listed in last week’s blog so we can continue our task design after the winter break. |
Authors:Room 9 & 11 will be sharing their learning every Friday. |