Our summer robotics program is underway. The students in Sam and Linda's classrooms are hard at work designing, engineering, and problem-solving as they assemble a moving and programmable robot. Robotics combines relevant everyday technological skills (i.e., how to use a USB cable and a laptop) with higher level mathematics (concepts such as rotation, degrees, timed events).
Our curriculum adds a focus on social thinking and pragmatic problem solving. It can be difficult to work with a partner, to compromise, or to accept a teammate's idea instead of your own. We begin each class by highlighting examples of good teamwork and encourage this practice throughout the project. When social issues arise, our teachers interface with the counseling staff to enlist their expertise in helping the students understand the perspectives of others. This interdisciplinary approach ensures that students are simultaneously accessing both relevant academic content and social-emotional skill-building.
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Emmy and Michelle's classes are designing and building water bottle rockets this summer. The students start with a recycled plastic bottle. After observing rockets, the students create their own design. We practice brainstorming to help students come up with ideas. We also employ strategies to assist students with categorization and ideation, which are skills many of the students are working on with their speech-language pathologists. Check back for updates are the construction process gets underway! In the meantime, check out this video of what is possible with a simple water bottle: |
ProjectsBraque posts photos and resources here to accompany many science units and explorations. Archives
November 2017
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