As the year winds down, it is very important that students stay on top of their work and get everything turned in. If you owe Bell ringers, the PowerPoint has been posted on the resources page. I will not take these after Friday, May 10th, once the last ones are taken up in class. Any missing bell ringers must be completed on your time and turned in, and keep in mind these make up 40% of your overall grade.
6th grade students wrapped up their unit on Tinkercad and many groups are having their models 3D printed! All grade levels are now working on learning some basic coding skills using Code.org. Students can continue to work on these at home if they would like, we have set a goal of completing about 10 lessons per week. Students are working in a complete course called CS Fundamentals Express and those who finish will get a certificate of completion. Hello everyone! As the year winds down there is a tendency to slack off on the work. Please make sure that you are completing your assignments and getting them in on time, there will be very little opportunity for make up work this quarter. Parents, please emphasize this with your students.
8th Grade - Completed our mechanism builds and we are working on some basic coding activities right now. With testing going on, I do not want to introduce a great deal of new concepts right now. 6th and 7th Grade - Have spent the last 3 weeks working in Tinkercad and learning basic AutoCAD operations. They will finish tutorials today and Monday will begin work on their wrap up projects for this software. Students and parents...
As we roll into the last quarter of the school year it is important that you ensure that work is being completed and turned in on time. I do not give your students homework and when I have to send them for grade recovery, they miss class activities. As we move forward with building mechanisms and automated devices in 8th grade, and with learning AutoCAD for 6th and 7th it is very important that students give their best efforts. Turning in Bell Ringer sheets on Fridays is one of the best ways to make sure that students pass the class. 8th Grade - Began building simple mechanisms two weeks ago, they will be due by the end of the week and this will count as two project grades. One for the builds and one for the packet that must be completed. Students who have not worked with their groups will receive lower grades than their group counterparts. Due to a lack of understanding about these basic mechanisms, our first period students will be having a quiz on the basic mechanisms on Friday, 3/29 to ensure they have studied this information. 6th and 7th Grade - Students began learning about Tinkercad this week and how a CAD program works. They will be working on this for the next few weeks to get through the basic lessons and build the skills necessary to successfully create and print their own 3D Model. Students will receive participation grades for completing the lessons. Hello parents and students! I apologize that I missed an update last week. Our return from break had us work on our Rube Goldberg devices that were created in Minecraft (8th grade), and a continuation of our work in Sketchup for 6th and 7th grade. The 8th graders had a quiz on Friday that covered building with the Vex robotics materials, and will be doing corrections this week.
6th and 7th - This week began sketching and designing their house projects that will be modeled in Sketchup. Student sketches must show measurements on every wall, door, and window, and must include placement of furniture in the house. Please see student rubric and instructions for requirements. 8th - Students are now building mechanisms with our Vex robotics materials. They will also complete test corrections from Friday's quiz. Grades are due next Friday, so please be sure that you have turned in all work. Last week students continued learning about a variety of subjects. I was out of the state attending a conference and learning new things to bring back to our classroom at the end of the week. That means this week we will spend wrapping up some topics before we are able to move on to something new...which we will do after the break.
8th Grade - Will continue to learn about simple machines, and hopefully have time to build one before the end of the week. 6th and 7th Grade - Will continue working in Sketchup, they should finish their custom castles and restaurants by the end of the week. Please see below for grade level activities this week. Progress reports come out soon and students who are falling behind will be given grade recovery work to make up for missing or low scores.
8th Grade continues to learn about the engineering design process. They will have a test on the EDP on Wednesday, 2/6/19. Monday and Tuesday they will be learning about simple machines through a designated webquest. 6th and 7th Grade continues to explore Sketchup. Most have completed the first two tutorials and will be receiving grades for those soon, and these students have started on tutorials three and four. This week we were thrown a little off with the snow...no snow day! I hope everyone had a great day off and got some rest. We continue to work through introductory work in all classes and learning about design and engineering concepts.
6th and 7th Grade are working on Sketchup tutorials. Almost everyone is now working on their second tutorial and is building more complex objects like a pirate ship playhouse. 8th Grade students are still learning about the engineering design process. We saw a Design Squad video on Wednesday and made notes about how each team used the process to solve the problem given. We will also be completing a Webquest this week about engineering. Students will have a test on the engineering design process next Wednesday, 2/6/19. I apologize for the late post this week. Almost all of the students are working well and starting to get into the flow of the classes. I am working on tailoring some of the technology and experiences to what interests them.
8th Grade - PLTW students are learning about the Engineering Design Process and have worked this week to apply this to solving the problem of getting M&M's into space for astronauts to enjoy. They will finish design, sketching, and modeling their projects on Monday (1/28). On Wendesday we will start learning about VEX and basic mechanisms. 6th and 7th Grade - Students learned about the history of invention and innovation last week. This week we shifted gears and started learning about 3D Modeling and creating using Sketchup. We will be working on tutorials in this software for the next couple of weeks to get them comfortable with it before introducing them to AutoCAD. Last week we got to know each other, and I shared the class rules, policies, procedures, and expectations with students. I think we are all in store for a great semester! All three grade levels began working on their first projects and will present these to the class on Thursday and Friday of this week. I will be posting the PowerPoints this afternoon and we will have a quiz on them on Friday. All of my returning students will be working on projects of their choosing for now and I will be working on getting the software that they needed loaded and ready to run.
Just so we are all on the same page. 7th and 8th grade classes are semester classes, this is a change for 8th grade. Some of my 8th grade students will be returning and some of my 7th grade students will be returning. While the other students are learning the curriculum we covered last semester, those who return will be working on extensions to the previous projects, or choosing projects of their own to work on. 6th grade students will be undertaking an exploration of technology and engineering concepts. Syllabi for all classes can be found above under the Courses tab. We will spend our first week laying out class polices and procedures, and getting to know one another. Returning students will spend the first week identifying interests that they may wish to pursue. I am looking forward to the last half of the year and hope you all have a great last few days of break.
The final 5 days of this semester are here and the holiday break is coming up quickly. Please talk with students about the importance of being on their best behavior and giving us their best work this week. This will make the week go smoothly and help ensure that grades are headed in the right direction.
6th Grade - Will complete their bottle label projects and then begin working on Scratch tutorials. 7th Grade - Will continue to work on Scratch tutorials. 8th Grade - Will continue to learn about mechanisms and complete outstanding projects. As we wrap up this semester, please keep an eye on your student's grades and remind them that good behavior is expected. We are wrapping up projects and getting ready to take the break on a high note.
6th Grade - Students will complete their bottle label projects this week, and we will explore a little coding after this. 7th Grade - Wrapped up our assistive device project, and will spend the next few days coding in Scratch. 8th Grade - Design and Modeling students wrapped up the design unit with their puzzle projects and we are now starting to learn some basic mechanisms in the Automation and Robotics unit to wrap the semester. Automation and Robotics completed their mechanism builds and are now putting what they learned to use building windmills on their own. This week students will be continuing the projects that we have been working on and some will be wrapping those up. We will also be participating in the Hour of Code this week.
6th Grade will be working on their drink bottle label designs and digitizing those, these will be complete by weeks end...or early next week. 7th Grade will be continuing their assistive device project and these will be finished on Friday for presentation on Monday. 8th Grade will take their SGM on Wednesday and will be working on 3D printing projects or Hour of Code this week. Hello Daniell families! I hope that you all had a very restful Thanksgiving Break! We will pick up where we left off last week and push forward to get through with some of our current and future projects.
6th Grade will be continuing to work on their corporate logo designs in 3D Paint. Once they finish these we will move on and create our drink flavors, names, and bottle labels. These will then be modeled in 3D Paint as well. 7th Grade will be working on our assistive device to help a student with cerebral palsy. 8th Grade Design and Modeling students will complete modeling their puzzle cubes in Sketchup and writing out the solution instructions for fellow students. On Friday they will try to solve each other's puzzles. Automation and Robotics students will be working on finishing their mechanism builds and then will move on to learning about automation and learning coding for RobotC. This week we are working on the wrap up and gear up for a couple of projects. Sixth and seventh grade students have a quiz on Tuesday 11/14 that was postponed last week. Both will find links to a Quizlet to help them study.
6th Grade is knee deep in their logo and bottle label projects. We still have a lot of work to do to get our companies up and running...ready to produce a drink. 7th Grade is now moving forward with learning about assistive devices and how they can help people with disabilities cope with daily lives. One more day of research before we move into concepts for our build. 8th Grade Design and Modeling students are working on cube puzzles that will be modeled with linking cubes, sketched by hand, and then recreated in Sketchup...before our classmates have a chance to solve them. Automation and robotics students are working on mechanisms in preparation for moving into our automation section. We all made through Halloween relatively unharmed, and hopefully the candy is slowly disappearing! Please see below for this week's activities. Also, please check student grades and encourage students to get their warm-ups/bell ringers done weekly to avoid low grades.
6th Grade - We have started our bottle label projects and are learning about company logos and colors. Students will begin working on their group company logos and coming up with their soda names this week. They will also be taking a quiz on manufacturing and logos on Friday. 7th Grade - We started working on our Lending a Hand Project today with notes on the design process and identifying our criteria and constraints. We will begin researching cerebral palsy this week and they will begin thinking about how to put their assistive device together. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Friday over the terms that go with this project. The link to the Quizlet for review is above under resources. 8th Grade - Design and Modeling students began working on their cube puzzles today and will continue to put those together and sketch them this week. Automation and Robotics students are working through the mechanisms they will need when we get to our automation builds. As we continue to work through our lessons, students have really done a great job learning new skills and new tools. Please see below for this weeks activities for each grade level.
6th Grade - On Friday we completed presenting our inventor projects and this week we will be taking a look at manufacturing and how it has developed over the past 200 years. 7th Grade - On Friday we finished working on our Sketchup houses. I will finish grading those today and tomorrow we will begin a new project where students will be designing prosthetic devices to help people grab and pick things up. 8th Grade - Design and modeling students finished up Sketchup tutorials and will begin working on the puzzle design project from PLTW. Automation and robotics students began building simple mechanisms today and will work on those this week. This week we will be finishing up and starting on new projects in each class. Please check on your student's grades in ParetnVue and let me know if you have any questions.
6th Grade - Students will have Monday and Tuesday (10/22-10/23) to finish their PowerPoints and research, and will present their projects on Wednesday and Thursday (10/24-10/25). Students were given rubrics and instruction sheets for their projects, and these will be used to grade their projects and presentations. After these projects we will talk about manufacturing briefly before moving on to our next projects. 7th Grade - Students will have the rest of this week to complete their house designs in Sketchup. They have done some amazing work learning how to model in 3D and AutoCAD over the past few weeks. We will also be getting our logins for EverFi set up through Clever, and will begin working on modules in EverFi next week. 8th Grade - Design and Modeling students have practiced sketching and dimensioning over the past few days. Students will be using these skills over the next few days to create their 3D Wooden Puzzle models and projects. These students will have a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday, 10/24, and the Quizlet to study can be found under resources above. Automation and Robotics students are learning about mechanisms and gears right now, and will finish gear trains up tomorrow. They will have a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, 10/23 and their terms can be found in the Quizlet under resources above. When we finish going over the gear trains, they will begin building at least one of each of them to demonstrate their understanding of how the gears work together. This week is a little different due to schedule changes for conference week. Nevertheless, we are moving forward and continuing our learning journeys!
6th Grade - Students are being acclimated to expectations, rules, and polices for the class. They were given their first projects which is to research and put together a quick to deliver presentation on an assigned inventor. Students were paired up and chose partners to work with. I will give them rubrics and written instructions on specifics required this week. All work and research will be done in class. 7th Grade - Students have completed sketches of their houses and are now creating them in Sketchup with partners. I am so excited to see how well many of them are doing with this. I will give them a due date for their Sketchup pieces on Monday. I want to see how far along we are at the beginning of the week. 8th Grade - Design and Modeling (1st Period) students are learning about different types of technical sketches and will be practicing drawing isometric and multi-view drawings this week. We are also learning how to use orthographic graph paper which is a little different. This will prepare us to start our 3D Puzzle projects next week. Automation and Robotics students are working on unit vocabulary and will begin learning about VEX parts and building with VEX materials. We will also be learning about coding in RobotC very soon, all preparing to build and program our first robots. BOTH classes will have a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday. There is a Quizlet link under the resources tab above for both word lists. 6th Grade - We wrapped up the first nine weeks with some coding activities and then we rotated to our new classes on Wednesday. New students are learning class rules and procedures and we will get started with learning about Technology and Engineering principles next week.
7th Grade - Students started working on sketches for their house projects. Every student is drawing their ideas and as a group they will select the best one and create those in Sketchup. They will be showing what the front, back, and side looks like and then they will take the top off of their house and create the inside floor plan for each floor. Sketches are due by the end of class on 10/12/18 and they will begin working on them in Sketchup on Monday. 8th Grade - Students working in the Design and Modeling module presented their Cerebral Palsy Foot Orthosis Projects this week, and we have spent a couple of days reflecting on our work. We will continue working in Design and Modeling next week by learning about different types of sketches. Students in the Automation and Robotics module are finishing presentations on different types of robots today, and we will begin learning about coding and assembling use VEX parts next week. I hope that everyone had a restful break. Please see below for a breakdown of what each grade level will be working on this week.
6th Grade - My time with this group is quickly winding down. We will be working on some additional tutorials for Sketchup this week. Students are learning how AutoCAD software works and working through step by step tutorials. By the end of this week they should have completed 3 total tutorials. 7th Grade - Students continue honing their skills in Sketchup by working on tutorials where they are drawing an outside view of a castle and restaurant. Next week they will use these skills to design the inside and outside of a house without the help of a tutorial. 8th Grade - 1st period is now focusing on our PLTW Design and Modeling curriculum. We are starting with an instant design challenge where they will be designing and prototyping a medical device to assist someone with cerebral palsy. Presentations of the devices will take place on Friday. 2nd Period is now focusing on the PLTW Automation and Robotics curriculum and will start by learning about robots and automation. They will be completing research on types of robots and presenting this to the class on Friday. As we wind down towards fall break, I wanted to give students an opportunity to be creative and a little more relaxed during testing. Please see below for more information on each grade level. Also, please check grades in ParentVue regularly to make sure that your student is making good progress.
6th Grade - This week we are learning to use Sketchup and will be completing some basic drawings in this CAD program. 7th Grade - We are revisiting Sketchup by completing a drawing of a Turtle Sandbox and a Pirate Ship. This should help build the skills needed to complete more complex drawings. 8th Grade - These students are revisiting Solidworks this week with some new tutorials. We will attack Project Lead the Way after the break and really dig into Design and Modeling and Automation and Robotics. Hello Daniell Families! Please see below for this weeks activities in Tech and Engineering. Please remind your students that we need them to follow their SWIM expectations and that our classroom rules and procedures are important to our safety and ability to do our projects.
Attention 6th grade parents...your students will need to bring in a 20 ounce water or soda bottle, or smaller, by August 31. We will be working on a design project and they will need one for this. Please be sure to rinse it out and let it dry before sending it in.
As a class we need tissues and hand sanitizer if you can send some in. Thank you all for your help. This week we will be continuing to explore technology and engineering in our world...
8th Grade - Will complete their presentations and projects. Do a group and self-reflection on how well we worked together, and start a short project where they will be researching an engineering career. 7th Grade - Will finish their Sketchup tutorials and performance checks. Then we will begin working on designing and building our candy dispensers. 6th Grade - After taking some time for coding last week, we will look at how the design process is used to create logos and labels for products. Students will then begin working on designing their own labels and logos. |