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Whole School Enrichment Class Opportunities:

Dana Castellana or Matt Dauchert  will visit each class in Kindergarten-3rd Grade for two lessons to offer STEM based enrichment opportunities.

Grade 3 Enrichment Coding lessons throughout the district.  Students will be introduced to Sphero Edu through a block coding activity.  Students will be given set parameters to create a block code (similar to Scratch Coding) to drive a Sphero Bolt robot.  Our first class will be a review of Engineering Design Process (EDP), an introduction to block coding on the Sphero Edu platform, and examples of the codes that students can use in their program.  Back in class, students will complete the code they began drafting during our lesson and be prepared to run their code.  During our 2nd lesson, we will go over common failure points and make revisions as needed.   Students will then test their code using one of the 15 Sphero Bolts from our set.  If time allows, we will assist students further with code revisions and retest their program.  

Once our push-in lessons for Sphero Bolt are completed, G&T students and peers can drive the Bolts during their set G&T recess block.  Additionally, a sign-up is available to classroom teachers to borrow the Sphero Bolt set for their students.

Grade 2 Enrichment, Water Done Smarter, is a lesson that was written with Dave Jones, our STEM coordinator.  Over the course of two lessons, students will be introduced to a common program that arises in our town each summer, a water restriction.  The town website has identified various solutions to this program, we will focus on one, the creation of a rain catcher.  In small groups, students will be introduced to their materials and they will need to discuss possible solutions.  Each student will lend their input as they create a blueprint for their rain catcher.  In our second lesson, students will have 20 minutes to build their rain catchers before we test them and find failure points on the  Engineering Design Process (EDP).  Teachers will then be able to go back with their students in class to revise and retest their design.

Grade 1 Enrichment, Sphero Indi block coding using color coded tiles to drive a bot/car.  This lesson will build off the student’s exposure to Sphero Indi in Kindergarten.  In small groups, students need to create a map and key to drive their Indi car using the set tiles in their pack.  They will work to make landmarks out of paper that are identified on their map.  During their second class, the small groups will build the map for Indi to follow.  They will share it with the class and as a wrap up we will discuss their group strengths in planning as well as their failure points.

Kindergarten Enrichment is an introduction to our Sphero Indi cars.  In our first session, we will demonstrate the basic commands of Indi and students will draw their own straight pathway to test.  In the second lesson, we will review the earlier commands and introduce additional colored tiles.  Students will work in a small group to code a crooked pathway for their car.

Our Sphero Indi cars are available to be signed out to classroom teachers following our push-in lessons.

Following our push-in lessons, pull-out enrichment services will begin for verbal and Math students in K-2.  Should your child come up on our radar for services, permission forms will be sent home.