Camp Eagle Constructs Harmless Holders September 18, 2018
Posted by Sean Musselman in Student Work.Tags: engineering, Grade 5, human impact, Memorial
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Camp Eagle students got a bit of the Bournedale experience last week with help from Mrs. Warford and Mr. Musselman. An engineering challenge awaited them Friday morning as students constructed “harmless holders” in an effort to improve on the widely used (with unpleasant natural side effects) plastic ring can carriers.

Planning our Harmless Holders
Students started by examining the alternative materials available and researched the average decomposition rate of each material in the ocean, generating two-column note charts as they researched before regrouping to share what they learned, documenting their new information on the class white board.
Fifth graders using two column notes to record decomposing rates of materials to engineer “Harmless Holders” with #bpschat pic.twitter.com/sXaaxGIbHJ
— Sean Musselman (@MrMusselman) September 14, 2018
Students then got to work planning their designs, sharing with classmates, and teaming up when design interests intersected. Students got to use some less common tools for classroom construction and Some designs required some revising as students started constructing prototypes, but many creative solutions carried the day!
Modeling Changes to Earth’s Surface: Where Would You Build? April 11, 2018
Posted by Sean Musselman in Science Center, Student Work.Tags: earth science, erosion, Grade 4, human impact, Pine Glen, video
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Pine Glen fourth graders got an opportunity to play waterfront developer during their stream table investigation this week. After creating what was discovered to be a model stream/river and beach, students were given the opportunity to decide where they would build homes on the landform site.
Some went for big risk, big reward while others took a more conservative approach. In the end many realized that the power of moving water was a force to be reckoned with! Along the way they considered how their small scale model might provide evidence for how larger landforms such as canyons and deltas form on our Earth’s surface.