MOVEMENT MADNESS

                                 While hard to record while moving, the kids love our new song!

Our youngest STEM levers at Maury have been exploring the ways that things move in the world around them. From hula hoops to musical instruments, gears to ramps, PS-1st grade are delving into "MOVEMENT".
 

Kindergarten students observe how musical instruments move to make sound and recording results.

Based on their age and developmental stages, each grade level is taking on different aspects of movement, including how they observe, discuss and record their observations. This unit has been a great chance to use so many of our SMARTS while practicing important Habits of Mind like "Look Carefully", " Wonder, Explore and Ask Questions", "Gathering Data Through All Senses" and more!

PK 4 year old students use Lego gears to explore movement.

Preschool 3 year olds "crash and bash" as this center with a variety of cars and balls.

Kindergartners record their observations about the way their Lego creations move using words and diagrams.

While planning this unit, I had a dream of creating a pendulum where students could see the path the pendulum followed when swinging. Our amazing art teacher Lauren Bomba has embraced bringing science into her art units and this inspired me to do the reverse... infuse ART into Think Tank!
(Check out Maury Studio and the incredible work Ms. Bomba does on her blog at http://studiomaury.wordpress.com ). I put out a call to parents in the Maury Community who could take on a challenge and two Maury dad's jumped at the chance! Over the past week they came in each morning to plan and test their creation and the result was AMAZING! Check this out!

Subrat Biswal drills holes in cups, looking for just the right one!

Sand was the choice material to use so Robert Pohl and Subrat Biswal came prepared to Think Tank.

Using sand from our sandbox necessitated a little sifting so small pebbles wouldn't clog the cup!

It worked!!!

 Once the amazing pendulum was created, I made it a center choice for our youngest students. They picked crayons and drew what they saw. They were mesermized.... and so was I!

                                           

3 year old records her observations!

Kindergarten and 1st grade students took their exploration of the pendulum to a deeper level. They made predictions, completed a few different tests and communicated their findings to each other verbally and by sharing their written observations. In addition, I encouraged them to view the path of the pendulum from more than one perspective and see if that changes anything they saw.

1st Grader making his prediction about the path the pendulum will take.

 1st grade class recording their observations after first rial.

Recording after our second trial.

Making observations from different perspectives.

Stay tuned for more images of our explorations and learning in Think Tank and images of student work!

Until next time!
-Vanessa Ford
@maurythinktank