Ducks in 7th Grade Science

(To be continued… this is just a draft 5.14.14) 

Embryology is an important part of life science. 

After 28 days of eager anticipation, six ducklings hatched.  They started off quite small.

At first, they used a paint tray for swimming.

As they got bigger, they graduated to a metal bucket. 

Finally, they were getting too big for their brooder… 

Finally, it was necessary to take drastic measures.

A final swim… 

Along the way, we enjoyed our time with the ducks.

Cardboard Arcade using MaKey MaKey & Scratch

This beautiful video tells the story of Caine's Arcade.  Caine Monroy is a nine year old from Southern California who spent his summer vacation building a cardboard arcade inside his dad's used auto parts store.  He had a hard time getting anyone to play his games, until one day when Nirvan Mullick happened to walk in and buy a Fun Pass.

Recently, inspired by Caine and his arcade, BPC's 7th grade students designed, built, and shared their own cardboard arcade creations.  We were able to add a bit of technology to the challenge, using Scratch for programming and MaKey MaKeys to incorporate some simple circuitry and provide input to the Scratch program.  BPC students from grades K - 6 were invited to come over and play!

Here is a brief highlight reel.  You can read more about our project (including the lesson plans) on Mytko's Post-its and Ponderings blog post.

More photos:

 

BPC Students' Entry in the White House Student Film Festival

Last month, 7th grade students Daniel, Jane, Abe, Flynn and Alexander collaborated on producing an entry for the first ever White House Student Film Festival.  Their task was to "highlight the power of technology in schools."  These BPC 7th graders created their film entirely on their own, without any adult intervention - from conception to writing the scripts, and filming through editing, and even composing all of the music you hear in the background.

The White House committee had a tough job whittling down the over 2500 submissions down to 16 finalists.  While our BPC's students' entry was not ultimately selected, the kids' final product was a nice showcase of the work the 7th grade has been doing with 3D printing this year.  Congrats to all of these students for a job well done!

You can watch President Obama's opening remarks from yesterday's event in the video below, and see all 16 finalists' films on the White House Film Festival page.  There are some extraordinary stories represented and all the films are well worth watching.

SNAPSHOT: Harnessing the Power of Maker Club as Tech Support

BPC's Director of Technology, Blake Hansen, offered Maker Club the opportunity to assist him with fixing our collection of broken Chromebooks from this school year.  He offered up tools and a few suggestions, and let the boys disassemble the machines and combine working parts to create functional machines.  The group was more than willing to participate.

The four boys planned, organized and collaborated; replacing cracked screens and motherboards with bent charger ports.  Through tenacity and creativity, the kids were able to put 3 functional machines back into circulation!

BPC at Julia Robinson Math Festival

On Saturday, February 8, an enthusiastic contingent of sixth and seventh graders from BPC attended the Julia Robinson Math Festival at Pixar Studios. The students engaged in a wide variety of math challenges in a collaborative, noncompetitive environment.  The student built flexagons, folded fractals, solved problems for Cookie Monster, estimated, played Criss-Cross, and wrestled with the Prisoner's Puzzle. 

Here is what some of the participants had to say about the event:

"I liked the event because it was an interactive way to solve math problems. It was fun to share ideas with friends and learn new things from other people." - Ella

"I really liked the Julia Robinson Math Festival; their events really challenged me a lot." - Dylan

"The math seemed less like a challenge, more like a game." - Nicola

It was an engaging event in an inspiring environment. Each student was pushed and did some great mathematical thinking. We hope to organize a trip again next year.

BPC Kids Participate in Live Video Chat with Dan Norton, Video Game Designer

On Thursday, Feb 13th, BPC students had an opportunity to join a videochat with Dan Norton, Founding Partner and Chief Creative Officer of Filament Games.  The event was part Jason Learning's focus on STEM careers.

Students from all three grade levels joined an 8th grade science class already watching the broadcast.  

It was interesting to hear more about the day to day work of a video game designer, and we were particularly thrilled to hear Dan Norton suggest that getting involved in creative extracurricular activities, like improv (?!), is a good way to find inspiration for future ideas.  Of course, we couldn't resist asking our own question. The kids were SO excited when our question was picked to be answered (at 39:50).

In case you can't read the blurry screenshot, it reads. 

(Christine Mytko, middle school teacher from Berkeley, CA): I am here with my class and we were THRILLED to hear you suggest improv as a creative outlet (we have an active improv after school club here).  Do you have a favorite improv game? :)

Dan Norton's answer? 

There is a game I used to play where you had to set a scene and not be funny.  You had to be a unfunny as possible….  What would often happen is that the scene would become really, really, really, really funny 'cuz everyone is working super hard at the opposite.  I always thought that was really great because the outcome was unexpected.

Other good advice comes from answering a question at 37:50: 

A lot of the best opportunities to be creative and to come up with great ideas is by collaborating with other people [be]cause other people know lots of things you don't.   And learning from them and working with them and getting their opinion back and forth is a really critical part of a great creative process.  … [W]orking on your own project… to get better at your skills, but if you want to make something great, you should work with other people to make it happen.

After the presentation, we took a few minutes and discussed how technology is changing opportunities for learning. Students noted that interactive webcasts like these allow for interaction with experts, or tours of places, that we might otherwise would not have the time, money, or resources to experience.  We all are looking forward to our next virtual experience (TBD.)


You can watch the entire interview on the Jason website, or embedded below.

SNAPSHOT: Virtual Field Trip to the Berkeley Lab via Google Hangout

Earlier this week, we learned that Berkeley Lab was hosting a "virtual field trip" on Google as part of a new series of Google+#connectedclassrooms hangouts at the National Labs.

Check out how our scientists use the Advanced Light Source to image microscopic life in 3-D. Tour a clean room at the Molecular Foundry, where scientists create nanoscale structures. And learn what’s possible with one of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, which can see individual atoms. 

The three scientists featured included: Dula Parkinson (beamline scientist at the Advanced Light Source), Deirdre Olynick (staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry), and Jim Ciston (senior staff scientist at the National Center for Electron Microscopy).  We were especially excited to "revisit" with Dula Parkinson since he helped make our recent real-life field trip to the ALS happen!