Invention Convention week 2

what a great 2nd week! 

we started Monday with discussing the invention of the hot air balloon.

then we wondered, could we make a hot air balloon...

after we looked at the structure of a hot air balloon and watched a short video on Dragonfly TV, I sat out some materials and let the students figure out if it could be done.

the students got busy threading the twine in their straws after figuring out yarn was too thick.

then they got busy taping the twine to the cup which they decided could be their basket.

and then glued the other ends of the twine to the garbage bag.

next came the fun part!

we used a hair dryer to test out their hot air balloon!

you can watch the video {here}

IMG 1185 from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

and {here}

IMG 1187 from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

journal entries:

the students are still enjoying playing in the polymers.

and Bailey had fun navigating her hot air balloon in this game.

Tuesday, we discussed how chemicals react with each other to produce magnificent effects. we talked about volcanoes and how there is magma under the earth's surface that needs to come out and that is where volcanoes come into play. we also talked about how it turns into lava.

in order to get this point across we decided to show them how vinegar reacts with baking soda to form carbon dioxide, which erupts as smoke, resembling a natural volcano.

it. was. awesome.

we also watched The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top

and played The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top. the students had to steer the bus through a maze from inside the earth to the top of a volcano and lava would erupt!

we also watched the same experiment we did on Stuff to Blow Your Kid's Mind.

Wednesday we explored the concepts of product design, features, and marketing. we watched commercials from 1980-2014 on different toys the students were interested in and how the design, features, and marketing made us want to buy each product. then the students became engineers, designers, and marketers.

they chose a toy they were going to create and used different colors of modeling clay to create their products.

after completing their products, the students recorded commercials to let customers know what their product was, what it did, and how much it cost.

 

Malcolm from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Jacob from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Carter from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Bailey from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Laine from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Kyler from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Caroline from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

Dalton from Jaysa Smith on Vimeo.

and lastly, the students filled out their advertisements.

Thursday, we walked to the Guy Hunt Technology Building right down from us on campus.

Dr. Balakrishna Gokaraju, who teaches electrical and electronics courses for undergraduates in industrial maintenance and industrial technology academic programs, and Dr. Shaheen Ahmed, also a professor of CIS and Technology, were kind enough to share some the robots they and their students have built.

we saw a robot that could judge the edges of the table. each time it got to the edge, it turned so it would not fall off!

 we also saw a robot that took caps from one end of the table to the other end. 

this robot runs mostly on air!  and was programmed by UWA students!

and a toy car that ran off SALT WATER! we all joked how we needed a salt water car! :D

we all received chocolate at the end of the visit from Dr. Ahmed. good visit. ;)

thank you to all the father figures who spared a few minutes to attend Donuts for Dad.

we had an awesome turn out!

I hope you enjoyed your happies the students made you.

we enjoyed painting little hands and feet for you and laughing at the hilarious answers to the questionnaire.

(follow my Dad's Day Pinterest board here)

we also learned some of the history of Legos. we learned they were invented in 1932 by Ole Kristiansen, the name comes from the Danish words "leg godt" which means play well. the Lego brick we all know was later formed in 1958. we also watched Lego TV on ZacBrowser. :)

then we got busy inventing. I sat out a bucket of Legos and gave no direction. just to see what they could create. they did awesome!

Miss Olivia stopped by today for our Chinese lesson.

she showed us how the shape of China is famous for being the shape of a rooster, pictures of China's landscapes, architecture, Bejing- its capital, and the country's flag.

interesting fact...we learned that everyone learns Mandarin in school but then pick up different dialects. Miss Olivia is from South China so she speaks Cantonese but she does not understand someone who lives just 30 minutes down the road because of the different dialects.

next week begins our "Up Close and Gross" session. we will be learning about snot, spit, burps, bugs, and more!!!