We're back, baby! Thank you for your understanding as I took a hiatus from posting weekly updates during the busiest of the GATE testing referral season. 

Hopefully you have already head a lot about the exciting STEM professionals we have had in the 1st grade class lately. We have loved the visits from a material science engineer, a fighter pilot, and a endangered fish wildlife biologist! After learning about material science, the students explored the classroom with electronic microscopes to get a clsoe-up view of what things around them were made of. After checking out a slideshow presentation from the fighter pilot, the 1st graders learned how to fold Ms Gabrielli's special paper airplane and checked out the awesome airplane tutorial website Fold 'n Fly. Some students also created pinhole eclipse art and we viewed the eclipse through shadows and eclipse glasses. Today, the wildlife biologist let students climb into her giant fish trap, test out different sizes of gill nets, and even use a scanner to find pit trackers embedded into oranges. Each student was also introduced to basic fish anatomy and completed an impressionist painting on their anatomy page.

In our last three weeks of visitors, we will have a visiting architect, brain surgeon, and nurse! How cool is that!