MAKING MARVELOUS MARBLE TRACKS!

Today 4 K worked in teams to attempt to build the longest track that will guide a marble to an 8 inch square. The structures were measured from the start of the track to where the marble lands. Structures could not be attached to the floor. The marble must land in the 8 inch square and stay there. The class had 3 minutes to formulate a plan. Then, they had exactly 10 minutes to complete the challenge.

TOTALLY TEAMWORK!

Over the past two weeks, 4K worked together to complete a 550 piece puzzle. Incredible teamwork and stick-to-it-tive-ness was displayed by all.

Great Job 4K!

GLORIOUS GUMBALLS!

4K  is filled with engineers, designers and team players! 
As part of our study of simple machines, our class used what we learned about simple machines to create gumball machines. The challenge was to use levers, inclined planes and pulleys in a 'gumball' machine where the ball moved from one end to the other. As an added challenge, the students could attempt to use gears, screws and/or wheels also. 
In the videos each team explains their design and how they used simple machines in their glorious gumball machines. Each group managed to create incredibly inventive designs as well as put their engineer talents to use as the videos clearly show. What was even more impressive, however, was how each group worked together and shared all the work and their ideas so well. 


THE DABBER.....PART 1 AND PART 2
THE BIG CITY <

THE ANGRY PINK FLAMINGO

THE PANDA PLAYGROUND
THE UN-NAMABLE
THE CONVERSE

EXCELLENT ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT!

We worked with our science curriculum specialist, Mrs. Sabatini, to design hovercrafts of our own using bottle tops, CDs and balloons. Then, we set up an experiment to see which design would travel the farthest. This reinforced our study of the scientific method and the engineering process. 

NO MORE TRASH!

Change Is Simple is an organization that works with school children to teach them about ways to care for the environment. They came to our school today and worked with the fourth grade on ways to reduce our output of trash. We had a relay race to sort trash into bins and then re-sort our trash into reduce, reuse or recycle. The goal was to produce NO TRASH! Then we saw a 'water bottle snake' that represented the number of water bottles an average person uses a year. On average, each person uses 228 water bottles each year.

GUMBALLS GALORE!

Simple machines are all around us! We have been reading and doing hands-on tasks to learn about how these six (or seven) basic machines work. To really put our learning into action we are creating machines that use as many of these as possible. And just how, you may be wondering. Well, we are creating our own "gumball" machines in CLIC.

4K has been challenged to make a ball move through a series of simple machines to move from one point to another. We have only just begun! But as you will see from the photos below, we are inventing some innovative machines! Stay tuned for updates on our progress.

The seven simple machines are:

• levers
• incline planes
• pulleys
• screws
• wheel and axle
• wedge
• gears (some say these are just wheels and axles)
  
  

SIMPLE MACHINES ON LINE

4K is learning about simple machines. Today, we used the Chrome Books to help us explore the Chicago Science Museum's video game about simple machines.

CLICK ON TWITCH'S PICTURE TO HELP HIM WITH SIMPLE MACHINES.

OR

CLICK HERE