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Friday, June 27th

Expo Day!

After an incredible week of time traveling, designing, building, and innovating, our students welcomed guests to show off all of their creative and complex inventions!

Thursday, June 26th

The Past is a Blur… of Color!

Builders and Innovators alike spent this morning time traveling to the 1960's while spray painting and tie-dying their STEMpower shirts.

Builders

Time Period of the Day: Post Industrial Revolution

Our Builders worked on two challenges: Building a bridge that could hold a book & building something that could transport a ball to the top of a tower

As usual, the afternoon focused on brainstorming and creating modern/futuristic solutions to the morning's challenge

Innovators

Quote of the Day: "Tie-dye teaches us something: sometimes best designs happen by accident"

Word of the Day: Wobbleology-the study of unstable carts

In the morning, our Innovators worked on two forms of movement, planes and wheelbarrows.They then took what they learned and applied it to the afternoon's challenge of creating a glider that can carry a pay load while dealing with wind resistance.

Wednesday, June 25th

This morning's provocation was to build a tower that could withstand the ballistic strikes of a catapult created by one our innovators. Students had limited time and supplies and then tested them against the balistic marble strikes!

Builders

Time Period of the Day: The Middle Ages & Renaissance

Afterwards, the Builders' morning build challenge was to examine the new materials, focusing on glass and metalwork, and technologies that were used during the Renaissance and apply them to a problem of their choosing

After rest and restore, the Builders upgraded their technology and techniques to help them solve their Renaissance riddles

The Innovators began this morning by learning about the seven major types of bridges and were challenged to make one that could hold heavier and heavier weights.

In the afternoon, the Innovators were challenged to create working drawbridges

Tuesday, June 24th

Builders

Time Period of the Day: ~3000 BCE Ancient Egypt, China, Greece

This morning, our builders learned about the materials, equipment, and accomplishments of several ancient civilizations. They were then required to identify and solve a problem these ancient cultures faced and were limited to materials and tools available.

"Great Walls & Greater Ideas: Remixing Ancient Innovation"

In the afternoon, our builders looked to modernize the technologies and methods of these ancient civilizations.

Innovators

Quote of the Day: "Mistakes are proof that you are trying. And trying is how you accidentally invent something awesome

Word of the Day: Iteration-a repetition of something

This morning, the Innovators examined the design images of Leonardo Da Vinci to examine how to properly depict and label engineering drawings. They then used this to help drawand design pulley systems to lift an object one foot in the air.

When STEM Goes Renaissance: Recreating the Mind of Da Vinci

In the afternoon, our innovators returned to Maestro Da Vinci's famous inventions and attempted to recreate one of their choosing.

Monday , June 23rd

Builders

Time Period of the Day: Prehistoric Age (Before 3000 BCE)

This morning, our builders began by creating their Design Notebooks where they will plan out their designs all week. They then began their investigation of pre-history, brainstorming as a group what type of challenges and materials early humans dealt with. Afterwards, our builders collected natural materials found in our woods to help them build a solution to the prehistoric challenge they selected.

In the afternoon, our Builders were presented with updating their challenge from the morning build by solving it using modern materials or to envision how the problem could be solved using future technology. At the of the day, students refelcted on what new techniques and strategies they learned throughout the day.

Innovators

Quote of the Day: If at first you don't succeed, call it Version 1.0.

Word of the Day: Resilience- the ability to bounce back from frustration or challenge

In the morning challenge, our Innovators were prompted to "Create a small, functional wheel-and-axle to carry a load across a short distance mechanism that can roll in a straight line carrying a certain amount of weight." They then used the Engineering Design Process to make several iterations of their work in hopes to get it to roll further and with more weight.

In the afternoon, the Innovators time traveled to the Medieval period to examine siege warfare equipment. Students selected between Siege towers, catapult, and ballista designs

Innovators

Quote of the Day: "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm"