5th Grade GT News

This year, our 5th graders have invented their own electronic museum exhibits about bee pollination. This is a complex project in "physical computing"- students must combine electrical wiring, a microcontroller and computer code to make this interactive project. When buttons on the bee-box are pressed, you can see more detailed illustrations on the attached monitor and hear verbal explanations. Students researched all their own content, drew all images, and wrote their own copy. I'm so impressed with their ability to make so many cross-connections and handle a complex project.

Did you know honey bees alone pollinate 80 percent of all flowering plants, including more than 130 types of fruits and vegetables? Bees are incredibly important to Texas Agriculture. So students took a trip to visit our award-winning, Hawkins High School Bee Keeping team to learn about bees. We even got to try their honey the team collects and sells.

To learn how fruits and vegetables are pollinated, students dissected flowers, separated each part and then made diagrams explaining the process. Each student illustrated their own flower.

Avery's Diagram

Students researched pollination and the effect bees have on agriculture. Each student made a slide show to contain their findings. Here are some examples:

Students created their own images- they drew bees, fruits and flowers in black ink, then used watercolor to paint them in.

These displays were made from scratch. Students built their box, stripped all the wires, coded their program, created visuals, recorded voiceovers- and so much more. Here are some photos from their work.

Khloe and Kenzie code their microcontroller to work with the push buttons on their box.

Avery constructs her box with scissors, ruler and glue gun.

Micah and Jax strip all the wires and reformat the microcontroller.

Chloe and Kenzie write their scripts and record their voiceovers

Abigail is measuring and constructing her box.

We will have all the bee boxes on display at the Open House this February so your child can show you their hard work. Several students will also be entering their display boxes in the East Texas Academic Rodeo Science Fair this Jan. So far, Avery, Kenzie, Chloe, Ethan and Mariah have signed up for the East TX Rodeo. These students will have to create a 3-panel science fair poster which we will start at school....but students may need to work on it at home as well over Christmas Break.

Elizabeth White, GT Teacher HES

Email: elizabeth.white@hawkinsisd.org
Website: https://www.hawkinsisd.org/
Phone: 903-769-0536