2nd Grade
Welcome to the 2nd Grade Innovation Lab Journal
We'll use our 2nd grade journal to share about each month's lessons and learning activities with the Innovation Lab Program. Teachers and Parents can follow along with the learning and find lesson resources that can be printed or shared and used to connect the learning to the home or in the classroom.
2nd Grade Lessons May 2023
Design Thinking with NASA's ARTEMIS program
An exciting science lesson that took place in the Innovation Lab this May challenged second grade students to plan and model a moon base for NASA's groundbreaking Artemis program. This hands-on experience not only educated students about the moon, Mars, and NASA's plans through 2040 but also fostered their problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills.
The students were introduced to the Artemis program through an engaging video presentation. Artemis is NASA's initiative to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, paving the way for future lunar exploration and eventually human missions to Mars. The program aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon, utilizing it as a stepping stone for deep space exploration.
To tackle the challenge of designing a moon base, students brainstormed and identified essential design criteria and constraints. They recognized that the moon base needed to provide humans with atmospheric pressure, oxygen, water, robotic ROV tools, shelter, and a location for launching and landing vehicles to and from NASA's lunar orbiting space station.
With the design criteria and constraints in mind, students collaborated in teams to develop innovative solutions. They utilized their creativity, scientific knowledge, and critical thinking skills to construct physical models using upcycled materials from the makerspace.
Through planning and modeling a moon base for NASA's Artemis program, students gained insights into the moon, Mars, and NASA's future plans while developing crucial skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, and innovative thinking
By embracing creativity and scientific knowledge, students presented unique solutions that showcased their understanding of the design criteria and constraints for a moon base. We have invested deeply this year in the habits of planning and using the design process before building models or experiments.
While our short term goals are to help students meet NGSS and California performance expectations in science, art and engineering, such immersive experiences inspire young minds to pursue STEAM careers and encourage them to dream big!
Student worked together to create a moon base that meets NASA's design criteria
2nd Grade Lessons April 2023
Annual Innovation Showcase 2023.
Students at Innovation Lab schools in CUSD were invited to after school events showcasing some of the most engaging learning happening in the program this year. This event showcased a variety of STEAM activities and encouraged children and families to explore, create, and innovate together.
One of the most popular stations at the event was the Dash programming station. Participants had the opportunity to program the Dash robot to move and meet challenge criteria. Exploring the basics of coding and robotics, this station encouraged visitors to think critically and problem-solve.
Another popular station was the Bee-Bots programming station. Children used coding skills to program a Bee-Bot robot to navigate a maze using sequencing and problem-solving.For those interested in video game design, the Minecraft programming station allowed children to use coding skills to quickly build houses in a Minecraft world. Children and families also experimented with different coding blocks and learned how to create using Python code.
At the Scratch programming station, children could learn the basics of coding through interactive games and animations. Scratch cards at each station allowed visitors to create their own stories, games, and animations. This activity taught children the importance of creativity and logical thinking. For those interested in building, the Lego Buildtionary station challenged children to build various structures using Lego bricks. This activity encouraged children to think creatively and experiment with different building techniques.
Finally, the Soundtrap DJ booth allowed children to explore music production by creating their own tracks using digital tools. Innovative DJs could experiment with different beats, loops, and sound effects to create their own unique compositions. Parents took over this station at both events to show off and explore their creativity!
Innovation Showcase Night was an amazing event that offered a fun and engaging way for our school communities to learn about the program, our integrated learning and the profile of a graduate competencies. With a variety of activities ranging from coding and robotics to music production and building, there was something for everyone.
Student and families worked together to create with cardboard.
2nd Grade Lessons March 2023
This student labeled their diagram of Bee-bot and wrote their poster in Spanish.
Students look at each others posters to help determine if their posters meet all the criteria on the rubric.
This month second graders in the innovation lab designed posters to teach someone to code Bee-Bot
When a person has a really good understanding of a topic, they are ready to become a teacher. In preparation for our Innovation Showcase event students used empathy and critical thinking skills to help teach families and members of the community how to code Bee-Bot. Students took their knowledge of coding Bee-Bot and created posters to help others use Bee-Bot. Students did 2 iterations on their posters. On the second iteration they had a rubric to work from to remind them of key elements that would make their poster helpful to the visitors to the showcase.
Students used the terms code and program to help families learn to use the 6 buttons found on Bee-Bot. They also explained that Bee-Bot needs to be treated with respect. Many groups used encouraging words to remind others that it's okay if you make a mistake. They also encouraged people to have fun and enjoy coding Bee-bot.
This month students also developed their engineering skills and experiences with a new version of the "Build-tionary" lessons by adding in legos and and a few simple machine concepts. Our study this month is helping students to develop experience in independently planning and executing a design of their own invention.
Students in grades K-2 must be able to plan and conduct simple models and experiments in order to meet NGSS performance expectations. To build this ability, we must offer many experiences in each of the sub-skills involved such as sketching, communicating, and organizing information in order to plan. The 2nd grade "Buildtionary" activity we created encourgaes students to quickly sktch out four familiar objects as if they were constructed with lego. Students practice drawing the object using only rectangles and estimate the number of materials they will need in order to build thier design.
The Innovation Lab Pilot Program at Lynnhaven this month was the first to test out Master Plan architecture kits:
Lesson Resources:
Bee-Bot Poster Rubric.pdfDownload student reflection slide above
Download Lego "Buildtionary" challeges from this lesson
2nd Grade Lessons January 2023
CUSD students can all FREELY access minecraft education edition with their CUSD login (email address)
Click above to view the trailer for BBC earth's Frozen Planet II in Minecarft EDU
This month second graders in the innovation lab program used Minecraft to explore animals' survival needs.
Second graders are beginning to develop their understanding of the ways that energy moves through food webs. Our first step is to understand animals life needs. Using Minecraft's recent collaboration with the BBC earth documentary, Frozen Planet II, students were able to explore the habitats of many different animals in extreeme conditions. Each mini-puzzle within the new minecraft worlds allows students to take on the role of a different animal and solve challenges that include finding food, hiding from predators, using camouflage, protecting their young, and finding shelter.
The puzzles are challenging, offer a deeper experience in empathy while also offering a highly engaging platform for learnin.
< - Students at every grade level created their first post, so it was remarkable for the innovation team to observe and facilitate the spectrum of elementary performance expectations across each grade especially in language arts and math. It is a unique tool to leverage as a “specialist” teacher in any role that works with all elementary grades throughout weekly rotations.
Second graders also visited with Richard Rocha, general manager at Sharks Ice and TechCU Arena. Mr. Rocha took second graders on a tour of the facility including the machines that make ice and keep the floor cold. Mr Rocha then took the live zoom broadcast to see the aren'a Zamboni machines. Students got to see up close how the machine melts, collects and refreezes ice. Students asked questions to Mr. Rocha using the live chat tools and were able to find information they were interested in learning.
Lesson Resources:
CUSD has provided EVERY student with a FREE minecraft EDU account that can be accessed using student CUSD account credentials. Download Minecraft EDU here.
2nd Grade Lessons December 2022
Students shared thier learning and helped each other to complete the objective.
2nd graders learned to program their first computer programs in Scratch Jr. on iPads.
Second graders moved into their first computer science lessons in December. The International Society for Technology in Education has created the nations computer science standards for elementary grades. We have been working on helping students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. according to ISTE educational technology standards, it is recommended that students have the opportunity to practice in order to understand and use technology systems. We also want to give students opportunity to practice selecting and using software effectively and productively as well as troubleshoot systems and applications and transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.
Scratch jr. is a block-based programming platform that is a great way to build computational thinking before learning syntax and/ or coding languages. Innovation Lab second graders learned to use scratch jr to create a simple program that allows the user to manuver a spaceship (or a sprite of the student's choosing) left and right. To do this students selected their sprites from the built-in library, drew their own sprites to create directional arrows on screen, and then programmed their directional arrows to send messages to the rocket to move left and right.
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Our focus this week is on introducing computer science without a steep onramp to creating a satisfying operational program. As students develop comfort and confidence we plan to move onto exciting coding platforms that 3rd-5th graders are using: Scratch, Minecraft, and Python/ pygame.
Lesson Resources:
Amazon has the official Scracth JR programming guide
2nd Grade Lessons November 2022
Student teams worked togther to create a multiple plans and iterations of their bridges to meet the criteria of the challenge.
2nd graders in Innovation Lab are beginning a new cycle of engineering and science content activities that will provide practice and experience with collaboration as well as planning and conducting experiments and models.
Students in second grade are working towards mastering several performance expectations that call upon the student to plan and conduct experiments or to plan and build a model. For example, this NGSS performance expectation describes student practice in planning an conducting an experiment to test observable properties of materials (we'll be taking this one on next month, in fact.) In order to plan for student success, we need to ensure that we have provided many opportunities to practice the habits of collaboration including, generating ideas, sharing those ideas, making sure every idea is heard and negotiating and planning a group project.
A second grader at Rosemary Elementary explains her bridge concept and drawing to her team.
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While we did learn a few of the basic concepts of bridge building incuding experimenting with creating trusses and covered bridges as well as a cute suspension bridge (below), our primary focus this week is on the practice of collaborative work before the engineering content knowledge..
Our first practice this week was to start with familiar content, and ask students to build a few of the landforms from last week using natural and upcycled materials. One of the criteria of the opening build is that the landform must include a 2' wide valley. Students measured and drew out their vallies using dry erase markers directly onto the tables and then building on top of this plan. This first step in ageeing upon a plan and executing often takes quite a bit of practice.
The next phase of this lesson challenges second graders to discuss and plan a 2' long bridge with as few supports as possible. Students draw onto the tables to show and number locations for supports as well as their plan for the primary bridge. Then teams of second graders build directly on top of their dry erase "blueprint" helping to make the act of planning and building a bit more concrete for young students.
Lesson Resources:
2nd Grade Lessons October 2022
Students labeled their builds to show what materials they used to represent the different features of California's regions.
2nd graders in Innovation Lab continued to develop their understanding of landforms. Students used wood blocks, corks, fabric scraps, and colorful shapes to create a artistic relief map of California that depicts mountains, desert, valley and coastal areas.
After a whole class review of last weeks' work and the focus landforms for this weeks lessons, each team began with a map of california drawn onto their tables. The "map" highlights four regions in california and students used upcycled natural building materials to create a relief map direectly on top of the 2D map drawn onto their desks.
Second graders continue working towards proficiency in their twig science units, so these innovation lab lessons will build and reinforce content knowledge and skills needed to demonstrate evidence described by this NGSS ES sheet.
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This NGSS Evidence statement describes what students should be able to do to demonstrate their understanding of and ability to use information they have learned about landforms on Earth.
2nd graders are using iPads to photograph "Wow work" that they are proud of. They then record a few words about how their work, growth and progress.
This month innovation teachers also met with students in small groups in their classrooms to help each student create their digital portfolios.
Mrs. Delaye and Mr. Pittman met with students in small groups and helped each student log into Seesaw and create the first post in their personal journals. Student’s posts included images, voice recording, video, text, and other digital graphics and highlights. Students and classroom teachers identified work that students felt represents “Wow Work” or writing, art, or video that is an artifact of challenging learning activities that resulted in growth.
< Note from Mr. Pittman - Students at every grade level created their first post, so it was remarkable for the innovation team to observe and facilitate the spectrum of elementary performance expectations across each grade especially in language arts and math. It is a unique tool to leverage as a “specialist” teacher in any role that works with all elementary grades throughout weekly rotations.
Lesson Resources:
SeeSaw's Youtube video to help student select "Wow work"
Download and view/ print our Digital portfolio introductory slides
2nd Grade Lessons September 2022
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In general, during build time, my focus is on encouraging students to work together and share ideas by working in sub-group teams of two to quickly build and try things out. My challenge then is, "As soon as your team finds something that works or is interesting, show it to the team and share how it was built." I carry a camera connected to the classroom screen or projector to take pictures of student work and share student examples with the class on the fly-to help spread ideas among teams and keep the collaborating moving and productive.
2nd graders in Innovation Lab connected their engineering practice with their study of landforms in classroom science lessons. Students used wood blocks, corks, and blue fabric scraps to create four "criteria" landforms, and were offered extra challenge points for building several more. Students begin by reviewing different types of landforms as a group, with drawings on dry erase boards before beginning to collaborate as a team.
Each team created a mountain, a lake, a river and an island in their team's landscape model. Second graders will need to be able to create a model of the landforms in an area, and will be working towards proficiency in their twig science units, so these innovation lab lessons will build and reinforce contant and skills needed to demonstrate evidence described by this NGSS ES sheet.
And we always try to end every lesson with reflection on three questions:
"What is something that was productive, went well or feels satisfying overall from the learning activity?"
"What is something that was challenging or difficult, but led to something productive today?"
"Who would you like to thank or share gratitude with?" (Think of a teammate to thank for great collaboration or sharing an idea or materials...)
This practice helps students build the habit of reflection on their work and the process of learning. I am always impressed by the number of students eager to offer gratitude to their peers.
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This NGSS Evidence statement describes what students should be able to do to demonstrate their understanding of and ability to use information they have learned about landforms on Earth.
< Note from Mr. Pittman - While I have never taught in the Montessori system, I have always admired its use of natural materials in hands on learning activities for younger students. The multi-sensory experience is both calming to the creative process and provides practice with fine motor and sensory skills.
Students work collaboratively to identify what they notice and wonder on observation charts.
Observation charts are groupings of pictures related to a study unit. Students work in pairs to write or draw their observations or questions on paper next to the charts.
Observation charts are groupings of pictures related to a study unit. Students work in pairs to write or draw their observations or questions on paper next to the charts.
We also used the Project GLAD strategy of Observation Charts with 2nd graders in Innovation Lab .
We watched a short video explaining the Carousel Strategy. Students then used the Carousel Strategy while working collaboratively to write what they noticed and what they wondered about the landforms on each chart.
This is another way to get students to start noticing and observing certain features the landforms have.
Students enjoyed the Carousel Strategy because they were able to circulate around the room and take turns writing what they noticed or what they wondered about the pictures on the charts. We placed the completed charts on the whiteboard so students could see what their classmates had written and see each chart. We ended the lesson reading the Twig Science read aloud titled: 'Exploring Landforms' and students pointed out the landforms referred to in the read aloud and those found on the charts.
< Note from Mrs. Delaye - I enjoy using observation charts at the beginning of a unit to get students to start thinking and noticing patterns in the unit of study. Many students could identify a mesa, waterfall, and mountain, but the word "landform" was still somewhat new to them.
I asked the students what their favorite landform was and pointed out that many of the pictures I placed on the charts were landforms found near us or found in our state.
A "Build-tionary" pet
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These "up-cycled" materials are low cost and present welcome learning challenges in building that we can use to give students practice with several valuable skills. These materials are great in practicing creative problem solving, visual communications, abstract expression, and in engineering linkages that meet certain functions. Many Campbell teachers have the RAFT Makerspace-in-a-box in their classroom or schools, but there are many similar objects that can be collected around the classroom or at home and used in the same way. Clean natural materials like wood, cork, cardboard, boxes, plastic bottles, sand and fabric scraps are great items to save and use in art and engineering practice.
Our first week of learning in the new innovation lab, was as exciting for the innovation teacher team as it was for students. We feel the positive energy every day on campus, and it felt like a positive and productive start. We began with lab safety, exploring the new lab spaces and the new resources, internet and online tool safety, team work and collaboration, and began to explore modeling and prototyping with our unique up-cycled building materials.
During the lessons this week, students opened with a quick greeting and getting-to-know-your-team activity. Then students were invited to explore the classroom and pick out elements of the classroom that they would like to explore. Students chose an interesting tool, display or resource in the room to explore and ultimately demonstrate to the class how to use properly and safely.
Next we moved on to an activity that called "Build-tionary." An obvious riff on Pictionary, students begin to learn the rapid prototyping process by drawing a card that has printed a word, always a common noun, and a simple line art image that illustrates the word. Student teams then try to "build" the word/ image on the card with their team. Students use increasingly challenging "building materials" such as corks, wooden blocks, small colorful wooden shapes, math manipulative blocks, CD-roms, plastic spoons, cardboard tubes, a sheet of labels, rubber bands, brads and anything I can find that will stack, fold, fit or otherwise link together in interesting ways.
After a few minutes, students compare and try to guess each other's words based on the model they have created. Then shuffle the cards and repeat. The objective is to help students become familiar with and build habits that work well in using the unique materials in the lab. As well we want students to practice working together in small groups to share and test ideas quickly.
< Note from Mr. Pittman - This "Student Guided Tour" of the lab helps students to spend a few minutes with some of the very interesting, but perhaps overly distracting robots, tools, materials terrariums and other exciting things in the lab. We take a few minutes to talk about using each resource safely and effectively before we start using the lab.
