Egg Drop!
Students in Mr. Ocon's Physical Science class went outside to test their egg drop contraptions. Each group 3D designed and printed their contraptions and then supplemented with packing material. We captured some of the drops on video!
AP Lit: Literary Criticism
Students in Mrs. Worthington's and Mrs. Weir's AP Lit classes began writing literary criticism papers over a piece of their choosing. Students refreshed their memories of MLA format with a quick Kahoot game, used library databases for criticism research and began writing papers. These papers are not due until next month.
Earth/Space Science Aquifers
Students in Mr. Ocon's Earth/Space Science classes learned about ground water, the water cycle and how aquifers work.
They used food storage containers, rocks, soil, sand, and clay to create their aquifers. A few groups even added some decorative touches!
Students then had to defend their aquifer, demonstrate it's effectiveness, explain how it worked, and described what they would do differently.
BVEF Grants!
We were awarded 2 grants by the BVEF Surprise Squad! We received one grant for Learn Something New 2.0 which will allow us to purchase materials to make more maker kits that can be checked out through the library. We also received a grant to buy materials that will help students taking market value asset exams prepare. Students will be able to prepare for automotive maintenance, fire science, nail tech, HVAC tech, and others.
ELA 11
We had one-on-one conversations with all ELA 11 students in Mrs. Willams' and Mr. Chugg's classes. They were researching topics related to happiness and creating an annotated bibliography. We checked in with students as they completed research, compiled their annotated bibliographies and wrote abstracts for a final presentation.
AVID 11 College Fair
AVID 11 students began by doing extensive research on a college or university of their choosing. Students selected schools from all over the country.
Other classes were invited to come learn about each school and AVID students did a great job acting as admissions counselors and telling students all that they learned about the school.
Students dressed the part and some even handed out swag that they brought in!
Teachers, administrators, students, and support staff all came to the library to hear about the schools. Everyone did a really nice job repeating their information to attendees over and over again.
ELA 10
Students in Mrs. Worthington's and Mrs. Manglos' ELA10 classes began a research project using Gale Databases to find article related to chosen topics from All Quiet on the Western Front. Students chose a topic, found 2 related articles, cited them, and used them for part of their final essay. Everyone found great articles and did a good job understanding the meaning behind the text.
The Hurdles
This month was a challenge as we found ourselves struggling to help ELA teachers grade the senior research assignments while continuing to work with new classes. While we like grading because it is helpful to teachers, it is a necessary aspect of our program in order to know if we are meeting the needs of our learners by offering them timely feedback. This is an area for attention as we can no longer collect the data that we need while also providing feedback. This remains an unresolved issue at this point.
Credits:
Created with an image by MarlyneArt - "dog containment telework"