Aristotle's Rhetoric: Learning the Art of Persuasion

Our fifth graders are about to embark on a unique journey designed to develop their ability to persuade others while simultaneously developing their writing, reading, listening, and oral advocacy skills. The students will read, listen to, and critically examine a range of rhetorical samples - speeches, commercials, political advertisements, eulogies, and more - believed by experts to be exemplary examples of persuasion. Don't be surprised when rhetorical appeals and devices suddenly becomes the topic of your dinnertime conversations

It's All a Matter of Perspective

The fourth grade students recently began a language arts unit focused on "Perspectives." As an introduction to this topic, they were asked to look at the image below and describe what they saw. Amazingly, when some of the students looked at the image they saw a duck yet others saw a rabbit. 

What do you see? What is your perspective? 

BeeBot STEM Challenge - Grade 2

Our second grade engineers have been working diligently to adhere to the criteria and constraints of their recent STEM challenge. My classroom was filled with cheers today as the various groups successfully programmed their Bee Bots to follow their designated paths. I can't wait to see what their final products look like!

Grade 2 Challenge

Your goal is to design a path that your Bee Bot can successfully follow.

Criteria

     The path must be drawn on your paper.

The Bee Bot must remain within the perimeter of the paper.

The Bee Bot must start and end at the same point.

The starting/ending point must be specified with a 3-Dimensional sign.

The Bee Bot must pause to look at a 3-Dimensional object.

The Bee Bot must go through a tunnel.

Constraints

     A blueprint of your plan must be completed on graph paper before your can have access to the building supplies.

You may only use the materials provided.

Your program may not exceed 40 lines of code

You may not touch/assist your Bee Bot after you press GO.

You must complete the challenge in the allotted time.

The Capitol Challenge - Grade 3

The third grade students were challenged to engineer a free standing support system to support the U.S. Capitol (a package of paper) so that a vehicle could freely pass beneath the building. The only building materials they could use was one piece of paper and transparent tape. Check out the video and pictures below of this rich learning experience!

The Disney Challenge

These young engineers were challenged by the Walt Disney World Corporation to design a new amusement park ride based on a comprehensive set of criteria and constraints. 

• The Ozobot must reverse directions several times
• The Ozobot must cross through a water feature
• The Ozobot must pause in the middle of the maze allowing the riders to see an image of a 3-D bee-hive
• The Ozobot must travel through a tunnel
• The Ozobot must travel around an obstacle in a quadrilateral
• The entrance and exit of the ride must be near each other, but not at the same point
• The prototype must clearly indicate the entrance and exit
• The  prototype may not use more than 6 linear feet of track
• The prototype may not exceed 15 visual codes
• Every member of the design team positively contributed to the project
• Multiple Ozobots must successfully complete the ride two times

Be sure to check out the videos below of the winning projects!

Grade 5
Grade 4

Programming with Ozobots

The third, fourth, and fifth grade students recently mastered the art of visual programming using miniature robots called Ozobots. Through a series of hands-on investigations, these young computer scientists successfully completed challenges that addressed advanced concepts such as probability, logic, optics, combinations, permutations, graph theory, and optimization. They are currently applying their understanding of visual programming by designing a prototype of a new amusement park ride for the Disney Corporation. Their creations are amazing!