Following the roadmap from garden harvest to the upcoming Harvest Feast took us through the land of weights and measurements and engineering in recent weeks as we invented the newest version of the potato machine. Thinking about cooking through the lens of food science we realized that in order to test, replicate and scale recipes using the massive pile of potatoes dug this year we would need some way to organize the harvest into equal portions. Given the diversity of sizes, shapes and types represented in our harvest, simply sorting or counting proved to be ineffective ways of dividing the potatoes into similar portions. Students identified weight as a more practical method, prompting an investigation of different types of scales and balances. Having familiarized ourselves with how these delicate scientific instruments work and the mathematical information they reveal, we settled on a standard unit of two pounds and started weighing. 

The fun was just beginning, though, as the modular water play equipment on the Lower Playground inspired the construction of a whimsically innovative machine to distribute the measured portions of spuds. We engaged with concepts including inclined planes, gravity, balance and structural stability as we tinkered with a contraption that would consistently deliver a load of potatoes to a storage bin. Students built upon the scaffolding of prior knowledge garnered from blockroom marble runs, slides, and sledding hills to great success. The outcomes left us with new questions about why things move down slopes the way they do to investigate in coming months while we continue to prepare for another bountiful Harvest Feast.

Meanwhile, back at the Lab, we responded to all of the current excitement around spooky themes and The Skeletons performance by converting the space into the Bone Museum. We examined a variety of skeletal specimens from different animals and parts of the body, taking the time to select a few particularly intriguing bones for close investigation and observational drawing.

To extend our learning, the Carriage House students  worked together to label and compare complete mammal skeletons using the scientific terms for each segment. A cooperative round of Alphabet Dash was a fun way to utilize intriguing but unwieldy anatomical language like “phalanges” and “scapula”. 

Our media literacy lessons in these first two months of the year have focused on something the library has an abundance of: book covers! First we look at a series of book covers or at the cover of the book we are about to read aloud together. Then, using a teaching technique called Constructivist Media Decoding, I help the students think through a series of questions. See below for questions broken down by age range. The questions help us analyze a piece of media, learn about genre and other elements of literature, and also reflect on our own identities as readers and consumers of information. 

• What do you notice on the cover of this book? 

• What colors do you see? 

• Why did they use those colors? 

• What do you want to know about this book?

• Do you this this book is funny / sad / serious? Why do you say that?

• What do you notice on the cover of this book? 

• Is this book fiction or nonfiction? How can you tell? 

• What's this book about? How can you tell? 

• Why did they choose this cover for the book? 

• What's the purpose of a book cover?

• What do you want to know about this book? 

• Does this cover make you want to read the book? Why or why not? 

• What genre is this book? How can you tell? 

• What other books do you know about from this genre? 

• What is the purpose of a book cover? 

• What techniques did they use to make you want to buy the book? 

• Who might make money from this and how? 

• Does this cover make you want to read the book? Why or why not? 

As the air has been getting a bit more crisp, at least in the am, we have been delving into objects and sounds that resonate sonically and intuitively with this shift in seasons.

Specifically we have been taking an ordinary object.. a metal key, and using it as a springboard to both listen and discuss what and why IS something considered an instrument? What is the criteria? I introduce the 20th century composer Harry Partch who invented his own instruments that were utilizing microtonal systems. Put simply, this is moving out of the Western twelve equal intervals per octave.

By comparing and contrasting the sounds of metal wind chimes, and keys made into chimes we are able to observe what and where these differences lay. This leads us to examples of other instruments that do not quite fit the obvious criteria of "instrument" and realize that well..it could be anything.