KCC STEM NIGHT!!!

*FAMILY STEM NIGHT*  

      Thursday, March 10th, 2016 from 6:00-7:30

    Kenneth C. Coombs School

Please  join us for an evening of hands on learning with special presenters from our school and community:

• The Cape Cod Children’s Museum
• The United States Coast Guard
• The 2nd grade winners with their handmade ARCADE GAMES
• REAL Insects and the USDA scientists that study them
• The Monarch Butterfly Project
• The Mashpee DPW
• The Compost With Me Program
• Mashpee High School Students and their ROBOTS/games
• Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Teachers running engineering challenges
• The baby Diamondback Terrapin Turtles we are raising!!!

We hope to see you there!!!!  

~Katie Martin

PreK-2nd STEM Specialist

kmartin@mashpee.k12.ma.us

http://qesmartin4.blogspot.com/

First Grade Beak Challenge!

Name:                                           G1-D

STEM                                         Ms. Martin

       Beak Design Challenge

           Please design your own beak for eating your favorite snack food:

Fork beak?   Spoon beak?  Straw beak? Chopsticks beak? Tweezers? Clothespin? Other ideas?

BONUS: Can you make a beak at home and bring in it on your next STEM class with your favorite snack to show the class and Ms. Martin how your beak works?!?!

Please bring in on: see special schedule for next class

* no nuts please*             kmartin@mashpee.k12.ma.us

Snowball ( or Ice Cube) Savers!!!

Dear Kindergarten Families,

In STEM class, we have been learning about the 3 states of matter:  solid...liquid...and gas. We have been focusing around water and how it can freeze, melt, and evaporate. To wrap up, we are having a SNOWBALL SAVER Design Challenge!

The goal of the challenge is for the children to build a container/package to see who can get their snowball ( or ice cube!) to last the longest.

The materials that we have been using include:

* Plastic
* Aluminum foil
* Wax paper
* Styrofoam  

Turtle Time!!!

All of the second graders had a chance to learn how to pick up and hold our baby Diamondback Terrapin Turtles!

They love to crawl, so we have to keep a lid on them so they don't escape from our hands!

We learned to hold them by the sides of their shell and to use a gentle touch...we also keep them above water, just in case they fall out! We always wash our hands after handling the turtles, so their bacteria can't make us sick.

Grade 2 Arcade Challenge!!!

STEM Arcade Challenge!!!

Dear Second Graders,

    Your challenge is to build an arcade style game out of cardboard and other recycled materials, so start saving now!!! Duct Tape works great to hold your game together...or maybe an adult could help you with a Hot Glue Gun? Games can be big or small, but you must be driven/picked up if your game is too large to bring on the bus.

Your game should be fun….not too easy and not too challenging...remember...engineers need to try different designs to get things to work the way they want!

Please bring your game to school on March 4th for Arcade Day!!! You will get to run your game for different customers...you can bring in small prizes if you want, but it is not required. You will also get to try out other games!!!

Ms. Martin will choose TWO WINNERS from each homeroom. They will get to show their games on STEM Night, March 10th for the whole school to see/play! Please fill out the Game Plan to pass in with your project on March 4th. Good luck and have fun!!! Your families can help you, but it should be mostly your ideas/work!!!

Love, Ms. Martin

kmartin@mashpee.k12.ma.us

    Caine’s Arcade!

STEM Arcade Challenge!!!

Name:                                      Homeroom:

Game Name:

How My Game Works:

Recycled Materials I Used:

What I did to improve my game so that it worked the best way possible:

Coast Guard and First Graders!

     Today the Coast Guard came to visit and help us with our STEM learning! Mr. Eric, Mr.John, and Ms. Martin taught us how sound waves are invisible and travel through vibrations. We have vocal cords that help us to speak and special hairs in our ears that catch the sound waves and send a special message to our brain to let us know what we are hearing. 

     There are many different ways  to communicate, but today we made a model of a phone out of cups and string. When we kept the string tight, our sound waves traveled to our partner's cup and we could hear what they said, even in a whisper! We all got to take home our own device. Thank you to the Coast Guard for helping us learn and keeping the coast safe!!!