Black Boxes

Spontaneous Problem: Name things that go back and forth
Boundary Breaker:  Students watched a short video about predictions for technology in the future. They responded with any potential problems they saw for the devices or society as a whole adapting to the new developments.

We practiced the Habit of Mind Listening to Other with Understanding and Empathy by using the video to discuss the coolest/most important technology shown.  Groups took up roles as speaker, listener, and evaluator as they practice whole body listening and received feedback.

Next we reviewed our observations and inferences lesson from last week as students collected qualitative and quantitative data for our dancing raisin experiment.  Students then made inferences about the objects them selves and their interactions.  They used prior knowledge to conclude that the wrinkled brown objects were raisins being lifted by the bubbles in the carbonation until they popped and sunk again.

We also went back to our discussion of models as students looked at their actual black boxes and drew they conceptional models for what they thought was inside.

Models and Design

Spontaneous Problem: Write scientific observations about this object.
Boundary Breaker: Make an inference about what the object is and how it came to be in our classroom.

We used our Morphic Thinking this morning to lead us into some discussion and activities highlighting the difference between observations and inferences in science.  Students learned the observations are made with the five senses and simply describe.  We classified our observations as qualitative or quantitative and defined each term.  Then we looked at inferences as connections your brain makes when you mix your observations with prior knowledge.  Inferences are theories explaining the world around you.  We used several prompts and images to practice distinguishing between the two.




Next we started our investigation of the use of models in discovery.  We read the article, "Everyday Mysteries" highlighting black boxes as the term for systems that are hard to see and explain.  Models are tools used to show explanations of these mysterious inner workings. Students also read The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins and learned how models develop over time and change with new information.  Students were then introduced to their own black boxes.  In future weeks, they will be working to observe these hidden systems and create their own models explaining what is happening inside the box. Just like scientists don't have a cheat sheet that can be checked at the end of the day, students will prove or disprove their hypothesis just from comparing models and never actually open the box! 

We talked about idioms and pulled out our brain stretcher packets to solve some plexer puzzles.


We finished with some final student presentations and had fun practicing the Habit of Mind, Persisting with the Penny Balance Challenge.

Simple Machines

Spontaneous Problem: Name things you have to break in order to use.
Boundary Breaker: What would you like to be famous for inventing?

Today we got to see all the amazing hard work of our peers as we presented our inventions projects! I know I learned a lot!  Thanks for all the effort that was put into those at home!

 

We were able to use a student paced Simple Machines Nearpod to brush up on our understanding, take some good notes, and play several online quizzes and activities reinforcing the concepts.  Your student can continue to explore at home with this game and this vocabulary review.  We then completed a fun break out activity.  Students loved solving puzzles and cracking codes to discover what simple machine had been taken from our classroom!

We also learned a little about the life and work of Albert Einstein to help us prepare for his birthday party later this month!

The Scientific Method

Spontaneous Problem: Name ways to say "I love you!"
Boundary Breaker: When is the last time you were a scientist?  What did you discover?

Today was a heavy math day as we aimed to finish up Chapter 1 on patterns in place value before the break.  Students played Some Sum and organized digits to create number pairs resulting in the largest and then smallest sums.  They also discovered the Commutative Property of addition as they found all 4 combinations that could result in a winning total.  We then showed our learning on the chapter as a whole with out skills check-up.

We finished by introducing part 2 of our exploration unit, Exploring through Problem Solving.  We began by reading Ada Twist: Scientist by Andrea Beaty (cutest book ever!) and looking at the scientific method as a problem solving tool.  Today we went through the steps an conducted a class test to see how many random numbers a second grader could hold in their brain without forgetting.  Check out our format here.  Five was the lucky number that discredited all of our confident hypotheses.

Time Travel

Spontaneous Problem: Name three syllable words.
Boundary Breaker:  Students were given some quick thinking math problems and then asked to think of a number between 5-12.  For the Boundary Breaker, students had to give their reasoning for why they thought most people pick 7.

Look at these beauties!

For math, second graders built off last week and tackled the place value game, Some Sum by trying to use digits 0-9 to create a number closest to the round's target number.  They used their mathematical language to share their thought process and strategy.

For the bulk of our day, students were called on to help me with a slight dilemma where they used their learning to come through with flying colors!  Our ancient civilization time travel mystery served as a culminating event for this unit and we look forward to starting on exploring through problem solving when we are back together after the break!

Artifacts Underway!

Spontaneous Problem: Name things that close.
Boundary Breaker: You have been given a big ALERT project to work on with a partner.  What are three characteristics you would want in the partner you choose.  Explain your choices.

This morning we finished our final edits to our research and crafted our artifacts!  Students who did not complete research projects looked at the Habit of Mind "Questioning and Posing Problems" with our mystery box activity.  We discussed quality questioning and narrowing a larger category with general questions rather than specific ones.

Together we read Round Trip by Ann Jonas to highlight creative and flexible thinking.  The book is original in that each page tells two stories, one right-side up, and one upside-down!

In our math unit, students competed to build the largest two digit number in our game Card Capers. Students had a tens space and ones space to fill as well as a discard space. When a 0-9 card was turned, they placed the digits one at a time in the space of their choice. without being able to switch and not knowing what the next flip would reveal.  We talked about strategies and the place value of digits affecting their magnitude.  Students were tasked with finding out how many two digit numbers could be created, considering there was only one of each number and zero could not be used in the tens place without resulting in a single digit number.  There was lots of great idea sharing and discussion!  We are continuing to work on expressing our thinking and problem solving in writing that is clear and uses mathematical language.

Standards for Thinking

Spontaneous Problem: How many different words can you create using the letters from EXPLORATION?

Boundary Breaker: Pretend you are an archaeologist and you come across this artifact.  How do you explain what you see?

To finish off our Maneki Neko Bank lesson, students found patterns in place value by creating organized charts. Using their newly discovered rule, they determined how many different combinations of dimes and pennies could be made for any given amount of change.

We did a bit of note taking practice as we looked more at the qualities of critical thinkers.  Today we used the Children's Guide to Critical Thinking video focusing on the five standards of thinking: Be clear, Be accurate, Be relevant, Be logical, and Be Fair.

Part of our class spent time being introduced to the Habits of Mind and playing Bingo to become more familiar with these traits for success.  They also used the squiggle activity to understand the four components of creativity with our Nerds mascots.  They used fluency to brainstorm ideas, flexibility to consider the shape from different angles, originality to choose the most unique idea from their list, and elaboration to fill in with colorful details.

My project crew was hard at work writing and editing their paragraphs.  We even have our first artifact to display!