Fifth grade has been working on lots of exciting activities!
Over the past few days, students worked on two cumulative project based learning assignments. The first one was “Run your own Pet Shelter” where students were challenged to create a successful shelter using: multiplication skills, repeated addition, arrays, charting, data collection, graph interpretation, and economics. Some of the project tasks included: collecting donations, shelter supply inventory, calculating measurements for the outdoor dog runs, managing the fluctuation of vet visit costs, and overseeing the number of pets that arrive and depart.
This week, students participated in a plate tectonic STEM project where they were challenged to create an earthquake resistant bridge. As they worked, students collected and recorded data during each of three separate trials. After each trial, I would act as the earthquake and shake the base of their bridges (the red plastic cups). Next, students rebuilt their “bridges” based on what they learned from the previous trial . This activity was a lot of fun and a great introduction to plate tectonics!
Another exciting project that we’re working on challenges students to create their own civilizations. After listening to the story “Weslandia,” students had the opportunity to think outside the box and create their own worlds. Elements included in this project are: a unique setting, staple food crop, character (style, fashion, trends), language/alphabet, sports/games, and a problem with a solution. We are presenting these projects at the end of the week and I’m excited to see the creativity that the students come up with!
