LABRATS WIN CHAMPIONS AWARD!!

The LABRATS Robotics & Engineering Team

won the Champions Award at the Woodlands Preparatory School Qualifying Tournament on Sat Dec. 15!!

As defined by the First Lego League, "this award recognizes a team that embodies the FLL experience, by fully embracing the Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the Robot game and project".

Redd School is very proud of this 2012 team!!

Now, we move onto the regional Championship tournament to be held in Houston in late February. 60 teams from the Southeast Texas region will compete. 

More information on that event will be posted after the holidays. Thanks to all of you for supporting our robotics program!!!

More pictures and video courtesy of Fred Morales Design available by clicking on this link:

http://www.fredmoralesdesign.com/labrats.html

ROBOTICS RULE!!!!

At least, that’s what the students who participate say!

The LABRATS Robotics & Engineering After-School program has been a favorite of students in grades K-8 for many years. Participation has only been limited by the amount of equipment available.

However, thanks to the generous support of several corporate sponsors, and the historic fundraising by the 2011-12 competition team, we have expanded our LEGO education into the classrooms and after school, and will prepare for another year of underwater robotics in the spring!

For anyone who wasn’t here last spring, the First Lego League competition team was honored by an invitation to the National North American Championship games at LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, CA.

We had just over 2 months to raise the money needed to send the team to the games, and we did it!!

There are still fun stories being told about the bajillion tacos, homemade chili, and spaghetti dinners that helped fund the trip. But the real support came from the generosity of our Redd School families, staff, and community. If I haven’t already told you: Thanks for all you did to make it happenJ

We now have 26 students in the after school program, and 4 on the competition team. And, we’ve added new programs to the school curriculum!

Our youngest roboticists are the K-3 JR.ROBOTICS. This enthusiastic group enjoys creative, open-ended constructions with a theme. They just finished several weeks of building community service structures. Then, they create a story to go with their work. The idea is to link developing Language Arts skills with something they enjoy- building with LEGOS!

                              

The 4^th- 8^th Grade EARLY Robotics program engages students in building simple machines that work. Developmental challenges move them through building that teaches progressive skills in how machines work, and why.

The NXT ROBOTICS elective for students in grades 6-8 raises the bar for design and engineering with building and programming of

autonomous robots. The competition team is made up from students in this group.

2012 Competition Team

As I mentioned earlier, we’ve added 2 new LEGO programs into the classroom. I’ve traditionally used LEGOS in Middle School for teaching about alternative energy and force/motion. This year I’ve added a new program into the 5^th Grade studies: LEGOS in Space!

Students use the newest version of the Simple Machines kits, along with a special Spaceport component to build machinery- tools and machines that astronauts use in space. After construction, they test their machinery to see how it works on Earth.

Then, astronauts from the ISS space station guide the students through lessons and demonstrations FROM the space station to see how their constructions work in space!

Another new program is the WeDo Robotics for grades 2-4. Ms. Aurora Clarke has integrated this LEGO program into our technology education classes to introduce young students to beginning programming as well as beginning engineering skills. WeDo gives students early experiences in data collection using Excel and provides exciting themes for creating photo storybooks using publisher or Word.

Our newest competition team has a Qualifying meet on Dec 15.

They’ve been hard at work since September working on their research and game. My next post will focus on their newest challenge and provide more information on the upcoming tournament!

Check back!!
Lollie

Oct. 15, 2012

4th Grade Eats Plant Cells!!

Last week I told you about the Garden Club and introduced the sponsors Mrs. Williams and Ms. Crow. I recently visited Ms. Crow’s classroom at her invitation to look at her 4^th graders’ plant cells models. And what an awesome job they had done! 

Making vacuoles

Students show their work- great job!!

Not only had they begun work on their individual models, but had worked to build a giganimo plant cell together.

4th graders around the giganimo plant cell!

This is a great example of making science fun! The enthusiasm filled the room as they explained and showed me their work. Learning about the parts of a cell included looking at slides through a microscope, constructing their cells, and then…..eating some!!

 yum!!!

This is learning they’ll remember!! Way to go 4^th grade!!

Silly Ms. Crow !!!

SPROUTING GREEN THUMBS

Our newest after-school club is all about digging in the dirt and breaking a sweat!
Middle School Language Arts teacher Emily Williams and 4th Grade teacher Kendall Crow are the club co-sponsors.

 Mrs. Williams explains:
"At Redd School we often ask the question 'what's best for the environment?' Although the answers are endless, one thing we can do is to teach our children how to love and respect nature. This year Redd School established a Garden Club for grades 3-8. A garden is  an excellent place to encourage a child's creativity and develop self -discipline."

"The club exposes students to the beauty of nature and the impact we can have on the local and global environment. We hope to reap the fruits of our planting and participate in a local farmer's market in the fall/spring! Details about the farmer's market can be found on the following website: www.feastofartisans.com "

Ms. Crow and Mrs. Williams are dedicated to teaching students the immediate and long-term benefits of planting and maintaining their own gardens. 

Check back in a couple of weeks for a progress report on the "crops"!!

Happy planting!

Welcome to the Science Lab!

We're off and running to a new year full of discovery and fun! 
From the first day, we began the journey of learning about the wonders of Science that surround us. This blog will highlight some of the adventures we embark on during this school year, including the AfterSchool Science programs. This blog is intended only as an online informative newsletter. I hope you check in from time to time. 

I've also provided a link to our Middle School SMORE Project- our collaborative ocean science study with classrooms in Barrow Alaska and Hinesville, Georgia. You can follow our fieldwork on that blog!

On this first post I'll talk about the work that our Intermediate students in Grade 5 are doing. We began the school year learning how to make accurate observations. This is an important skill at all grade levels and is a big part of our studies on how land is shaped by water. We study landforms and geological features by building models of stream tables.
No doubt some of you have heard about our investigations!
But, I'm not going to tell you everything we do...just enough so that you can ask your child some specific questions :)

Group 4 works together to create the stream table.

 A huge part of learning in the Lab requires working together as a team or group, with each member contributing to the effort. These social skills are important to developing a sense of responsibility, and learning to help one another. Jobs are rotated with each new investigation so that everyone gets to do all of them.

Group 3 takes a close look at what's happening.

Grade 5 is also learning how scientists use models to explain concepts or ideas.  We talk about the strengths and weakness (or limits) that models offer, and they're beginning to understand how our stream tables are scientific models of real-life processes!

Identifying features on the stream tables.

And of course, there's paperwork- recording our observations and data.

                                                  

                                                                                          

      

 More news soon!!!