Gifted and Talented students from Belton, Honea Path, and Wright Elementary Schools undertook a large project during the 2021 holiday season! Using the book
Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet as inspiration, students recreated the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route to scale in their classrooms, with each classroom tile representing 1/10 (or 0.1) mile . Students then created balloons to travel the path, and coded Ozobots to perform a series of actions related to the parade (e.g. nitro burst, pause, and cruise). After compiling a host of research on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the balloons that have been featured in the parade over the years, students either re-created classics or created their own masterpieces that highlighted a specific decade using Crayola Model Magic (AFTER realizing the original attempt with air-dry clay produced figures that were too fragile and had too much mass for the Ozobots to support-- a connection to force/motion). The "balloons" were attached to an Ozobot and students watched as they paraded around their classroom along the scaled Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route.