During the month of January Grade 8 students followed their scientific passions, created their own experiments, and learned a ton in the process. All of the hard work and investigation concluded Thursday with STEM Night.
The days leading up to STEM Night were an opportunity to go through the science exploration process, consider multiple proposals, then practice failing and trying again through many iterations (in some cases 15+).
All the projects involved energy/force in some way, working in the realms of physics, chemistry, and engineering.
Grade 4 also presented “The Physics of Sound.” The big and little sisters were able to share their projects with each other earlier in January and both grades (8 and 4) presented on STEM Night together.
Our students delved into the following projects (among others):
In late December Hamlin alum Madi Lusk visited with students in Ms. Kane’s Spanish Honors class. Ms. Lusk graduated from Skidmore College in 2019, and is currently immersed in a prestigious Princeton University fellowship working with aspiring entrepreneurs in Guatemala.
Girls posed questions in Spanish to Ms. Lusk about her Hamlin experience, her University High School experience, her college experience, and her decision to work in Guatemala with young people interested in careers in STEM. Ms. Lusk spoke about a program she started to teach high school girls about programming and engineering. She responded to all the student questions in fluent Spanish with a beautiful accent, but also shared that it is challenging to speak Spanish all day long in Guatemala. Ms. Lusk mentioned that she was thankful for her Hamlin education, which gave her the confidence to work in a primarily male-dominated space.
Ms. Kane adds.
“Hamlin Spanish students loved hearing about Madi’s journey and how she is able to take the lessons and the language skills she learned at Hamlin and apply them in an international setting.”
December brings a weeklong celebration of coding and STEM. Students in all grades Kindergarten through Grade 8 are participating in various activities centered on a dynamic exploration of technology and related fields. Our students join kids from around the globe in this engaging endeavor.
Throughout the week students have been practicing their coding skills using the following:
Lightbot, Cargo-bot, Playgrounds, 7 Billion Humans, Human Resource Machine, Kodable, App Lab, Dance Party, Blockly, Classic Maze, and Compute it.
On Wednesday morning we welcomed guest speaker Melinda Lu (Director of Engineering) from VSCO (a creative channel). Ms. Lu spoke about the culture of VSCO and her early interest in science and technology. She also answered specific student questions related to her workday and daily activities at VSCO.
This STEM focused week has been a wonderful and profound learning experience for our entire school.
In Grade 4, our nervous system unit culminates with a classic egg drop experiment. Students work in teams as “helmet companies.” They design “helmets” to protect their raw eggs from a three-story fall onto a concrete surface. So far this year, 100% of the eggs have survived the drop unharmed thanks to some creative engineering!
Our youngest scientists entered the lab brimming with curiosity! We read the book, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss and talked about how our emotions are controlled by a part of our brain called the amygdala. We also spoke about how we are in control of our emotional reactions. One student said, “We can change our attitude!” The girls explored a variety of color-themed centers including mixing wells and pipettes, prisms, and watercoloring.
(Photo) Kindergartener, Alex L. investigates colors by using a pipette to drop colored water into a mixing well tray. Using a pipette introduces our youngest scientists to a new tool and strengthens fine motor skills.
This August our technology program at Hamlin has expanded. In previous years girls in grades 7 and 8 could only take technology classes as electives. In 2019-2020 students in both grades 7 and 8 will partake in a required yearlong tech exploration. This recommendation for a change emerged from the diligent work of Hamlin’s Technology Advisory Committee. Middle school girls will now have the opportunity to continue their studies in areas like coding, robotics, and the engineering design process.
Jim Lengel (Director of Technology) states:
“Our comprehensive tech program now spans from grades 2 through 8. Girls will walk out of Hamlin knowing how to make a website from scratch.”
During the month of January, Grade 8 students followed their scientific passions, created their own experiments, and learned a ton in the process. All of the hard work and investigation concluded Thursday with STEM Night.
The days leading up to STEM Night were an opportunity to go through the science exploration process, consider multiple proposals, then practice failing and trying again through many iterations (in some cases 15+).
All the projects involved energy/force in some way, working in the realms of physics, chemistry, and engineering.
Science teacher, Ms. Gillian Curran adds:
This year, there was a special new addition- the 4th grade presented “The Physics of Sound” in the Riveter Lab. The big and little sisters were able to share their projects with each other earlier in January and both grades presented on STEM Night together. The 8th and 4th grade girls really enjoyed connecting with each other around science.
Our students delved into the following projects (among others):
In honor of International Women’s Day, Grade 6 students raised money through a bake sale for the nonprofit OneProsper, an organization that supports the education of girls in rural India.
Money raised from the bake sale will go toward funding girls’ education in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India. Girls in that region must walk several hours a day to get water for their families. Bake sale funds will provide the resources necessary for these girls to attend school instead of walking for water. OneProsper will use the money to buy water filter systems for these girls’ families as well as giving each girl school tuition, supplies, and a bike for transportation.
Today was the first in a series of bake sales to support OneProsper’s efforts. Recently, Salesforce visited with students and introduced them to their Trailhead technology to create an app to improve bake sale results. This partnership emerged after Hamlin students visited Salesforce as part of our #STEMGenderGap day in December. The app allows costumers to buy goods even if they don’t have any money. The technology also enables Grade 6 girls to pre-order goodies, track inventory, and get the names of customers in order to follow up for future payment. Grade 6 students used the app on their iPads to collect data. Finally results for the early morning sale showed that dessert bars and cakes outperformed cookies. The data also showed $248 worth of sales in less than 30 minutes.
This screen section recorded Bake Sale Items Sold ($) by Type and Size:
Hamlin girls have four more bake sales to go, but their app will certainly help them continue to have sales success.
During the month of January, Grade 8 students followed their scientific passions, created their own experiments, and learned a ton in the process. All of the hard work and investigation concluded Thursday with STEM Night.
The days leading up to STEM Night were an opportunity to go through the science exploration process, consider multiple proposals, then practice failing and trying again through many iterations (in some cases 20+).
All the projects involved energy/force in some way, working in the realms of physics, chemistry, engineering, and robotics.
Science teacher, Ms. Gillian Curran adds:
I provided guiding questions, but they figured everything out themselves. In the month leading up to STEM Night, every student had something they were super engaged with, and was self-driven. As part of the work, each girl was in a research group that figured out the science behind the various projects. During February they will create iBooks about the science topics in their experiments, they will then teach part of the upcoming units.
Our students delved into the following topics (among others):
Grade 6 students are working in teams to design an app that describes what they are learning in their PE rotations and how those skills relate to The Hamlin Creed.
The apps have four screens — one home screen and one screen for each rotation (climbing, dance, and group sports). Each student is responsible for creating one screen that describes the current rotation. The team works together to make the home screen.
Students brainstormed what the app would look like, considering colors, button types, and font size, while designing a uniform appearance for all four screens.
Below is an example of a screen that incorporates courage and respect from The Hamlin Creed:
