It is hard to believe that we are just hours away from our winter break! This year has been flying by. Here is an update from the Explorers Classroom:
6th Grade:
We finished mummifying the chickens, and they have been sent to the afterlife. The kids did a fantastic job on this project. Not only did they learn about the customs of the ancient Egyptians surrounding mummification, they were also able to DO mummification, instead of just reading about it. The chickens were sent on via the "dumpster of the afterlife" in our parking lot. When we debriefed the project almost all of the students were disappointed that we needed to throw the chickens away, especially after all the work to mummify them. They wanted to somehow keep the chickens! Maybe next year some lucky family will get to become the owner of a mummified chicken. Only in Explorers...
We are also working on a unit about historic and modern pirates as we read the book Bloody Jack. This critically-acclaimed book is new this year for Explorers and replaces Treasure Island (which almost every student in the last several years found too slow and very boring). The students are also learning to make their own websites (they have a pirate theme of some type). The students are using wix.com to create their sites.
7th/8th Grade:
We are still in our Science Fiction unit. We have completed the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Students are giving their project presentations now, and they have been very creative.
The students are also in the thick of film making. This is now crunch time with the approaching deadline (Jan. 8th). Many of the groups are now editing. I have seen some of the raw footage and much of it looks very good. Now the hard part: how to edit the shots into an interesting story or documentary. I can't wait to see the final films.
Students have also been submitting films and pieces of writing to the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards. The deadline for the forms to be postmarked is January 6. Please let me know if you need any help getting these submitted.
Today we had a great experience in the 1st/2nd period block. We were able to participate in a "Virtual Field Trip" to the headquarters of the Solar Impulse plane project. This was done via Google Hangouts (like Skype or Facetime). Google runs these virtual field trips for schools. The students got to hear from Solar Impulse engineers and one of the pilots (he was in the middle of a 72 hour simulation). We also got to ask questions . The cool thing: the headquarters for the project is in Switzerland! This is an example of the real power of technology. Click here to see a recording of the Hangout, including questions from the Explorers classroom)
The new technology director for the district, Forrest Baker, also joined us. He told the kids that the district is trying to find ways to harness technology for the classroom, and has found Explorers as a great example of how it can be used.
