It was great to have the 3rd graders back in the classroom today! They are such an energy-packed crew that loves to participate in class discussions. Today, we started a new unit, Invention Convention! This is part of the Invent Idaho program. I am still waiting on information whether all of our students will be able to enter the January 17th BSD competition or if only a handful will be able to go. Regardless, everyone in our class will go through the Invention Convention program during the next 7 GATE classes. Winners of the BSD competition will have to opportunity to participate in the SW Idaho regional competition at JUMP on January 27th-28th, and regional winners will go to the State finals in Moscow March 3-4th. State winners are invited to the national Invention Convention in Michigan for June 7-9th, and the Global competition later in the year is the pinnacle of invention design!

Today, the students participated in a lesson where they determined what exactly an invention is. They settled on the definition that "an invention is something that is created to solve a problem or make something better or easier." The found inventions around the classroom and identified what problem they solved and how they changed the school experience. They then took part in an invention March Madness-style tournament bracket. They made inventions go head-to-head, advocating for the inventions they found most important. Eventually, penicillin took the top spot beating out Fruit Growers Express by one vote.

After reading another chapter of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and having a special Choice Time with computers due to the 3rd graders being the best hallway walkers, we finished the day by looking at the components of an inventor's logbook, an important part of the Invention Convention process.

Next week, we will start our logbooks, and the first thing to do is identify problems (ideally connected to the student or someone they know) that need fixing. The projects need to be student-driven, but they can get some help brainstorming some problems over the course of this week.