
STEM
September 13th, 2023

Library Calendar
All book are due 5/31/24!
April Update
K-2 Students are finishing up learning about Evo! They created their own towns and coded Evo to travel around them! They also have been using augmented reality to explore different maps! This week students worked on building different numbers and letters using magna tiles, and started to build bridges using planks.
Students in grades 3-5 finished up Dashketball tryouts! They also started to learn about Evo, and use block-based coding to help program the robot to trace different shapes. In the next few weeks students will be exploring more block-based coding programs!
March Update
K-2 Students have been busy in the STEM room. They created hearts out of different materials for valentine's day and just finished up coding beebot to travel through mazes. This week they were introduced to Evo! Evo is a robot that we can code with a simple line. In the next few weeks, students will be creating their own towns for Evo.
Students in grade 3-5 finished up their kindness Scratch projects this week. They enjoyed looking at one another's projects and trying out their code. This week students started practicing for "Dash-ket-ball" tryouts. They will code Dash to perform with the Harlem Globetrotters.
January Update
Students in grades 3-5 celebrated their hardwork by coding their lego float projects around a parade route. Fifth grade students wrote invitations for the parade to the staff member they chose to honor. Students were so excited to showcase their engineering and coding skills! This week students started kindness projects on Scratch!
December Update
This month in STEM, K-2 Students learned about Indi cars. Students coded their Indi cars to travel different routes using colored mats. We also read The Most Magnificent Thing, and students collaborated to build their own magnificent houses. Students loved showing off their creativity to their peers. Next week K-1 Students will be introduced to Kubo and our second graders will be introduced to Dash!
Students in Grades 3-5 have finished desinging and building their lego floats, and have now transitioned into the last phase of the project, which is coding the parade route. Students will collaborate to code Dash through the streets of Walpole. The parade starts on South St. at the police station and ends at Elm Street School.
Float themes:
Grade 3: Book Characters
Grade 4: Animals
Grade 5: Students chose an adult from the Elm Street community to honor
November
K-2 students are finishing up our Scratch Jr. unit. We read The Mitten, by Jan Brett, and recreated the story using block code. Second graders finished their book projects, presented them to the class, and are now wrapping up The Mitten project. In the next few weeks students will be introduced to Indi cars! Indi cars are robots that respond to color, and will be used to build computational thinking skills.
Students in grades 3-5 have started to work their way through the Engineering Design Process to build lego floats for our Elm Street Parade. Students are learning why each step of the process is essential when developing a product. So far students have completed: ASK, IMAGINE, and PLAN. Next week students will begin to CREATE their lego floats. Checkout the themes for this year's parade:
Grade 3: Book Characters
Grade 4: Animals
Grade 5: Top Secret
October Update
In STEM, students have been working on building magnificent structures using magna tiles, using KAPLA blocks to build fences for their brainflake flowers, and creating pumpkins using brainflakes. These projects help to build communication skills, as students must collaborate to accomplish their goal. In grade K-2 students we have started our coding unit! Students learned what coding is and how we can communicate with robots. Our coding unit kicked off with unplugged coding activities. Students worked to code their partners to build something by giving them very clear instructions. Students were also introduced to their first robot, BeeBot, and worked in teams to code BeeBot (dressed as a pirate ship) to navigate through the grid to the treasure. This week second grade students logged into Scratch Jr. and began retelling or recreating a story of their choice by using block coding.
In Grades 3-5, students were introduced to a typing program that will help them increase their words per minute. They also participated in unplugged coding activities, building challenges and learned about the Engineering Design Process. They even started to sketch and build their own roller coasters!