-by Dave Bennett and Katie Haigh As part of our Waste in Our World exploration, grade 4s have been tasked with taking something of little or no value and creating something usable that serves a purpose. The overarching question was “how does your creation give an item a better purpose?” Throughout this challenge, students have… Continue reading Upcycle That! Grade 4 Waste in Our World
by Rick Fawcett In this fourth installment of Grade 4’s Folk Song Unit series, I speak with Heather Fawcett and Jessica Kelly about the real “meat and potatoes” of their inquiry unit. They address the challenges a multi-dimensional project can present along with the manner in which student success is being measured. https://www.youtube.com/v/I179L7jp43c?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata In my… Continue reading Grade 4 Folk Song Unit: Making Alberta's History Sing (Part 4: Going Further)
Our grade 4 and 7 classes are collaborating this year in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge. The students have been assembled into small combined teams where each takes up the different challenges. Our grade 7 students have taken up these leadership roles, and below is a blog post written by a grade 4 and 7 pair. They could earn up… Continue reading Energy Diet- A student post
Heather Melville- Grade 4 Math and Science In July 2013, I had the privilege to work with students, teachers, Galileo Network experts and researchers at the University of Calgary. (Brent Davis – Professor and chair of mathematics education, Krista Francis Poscente – IOSTEM Director). We met in May to discuss the research portion of the… Continue reading Spatial Reasoning
Flower Pounding in Grade 4Marla Paxton~ Grade 4 Math and Science Prep Time – A weekend (with breaks) to treat and prepare fabricLesson – Approximately 4-5 classes. My partner teacher Heather Melville and I wanted to look at the way we took up Plant Growth & Change this year so the grade 4‘s made a… Continue reading Plant Growth and Changes
Grades: 6-9 Subject: All As part of our Collaboration and Outreach Program, the Calgary Science School is creating and sharing podcasts and PDF handouts of inquiry-based lessons designed by our teachers. We encourage feedback, comments and dialogue on the materials we publish. This podcast contains one approach to assessing website credibility by introducing three criteria… Continue reading CSS Podcasts: Assessing Website Credibility
Deirdre Bailey Traditionally, Grade 4 “Wheels, Levers and Devices that Move” units involve hands on investigations in which students have the opportunity to build something. Often however, these building opportunities are heavily regulated and have students follow a specific set of instructions, put pieces together sequentially and then showcase a collection of virtually identical products. While I… Continue reading How To Build an Awesome Car (Engineering Thinking in Grade 4)
Candice Shaw The Grade 4 and 7 Math and Science teams were fortunate enough to attend the Calgary Science School/Rocky View Schools Cross Authority STEM planning days in April. During these days, we were able to brainstorm, collaborate, and “flush out” a cross-grade collaborative unit. Both Grade 4 and 7 Science have units on Plants… Continue reading Grade 4/7 Plants Collaborative Project
Deirdre Bailey and Jenna Callaghan We began a recent investigation into Light and Shadows in Grade 4 by posing the question “What is Light?” to our students. Before beginning the conversation, we reminded students that the world is not nearly as concrete or easily-understood as over-simplified statements of “fact” might often imply. We talked about how… Continue reading On Light, Shadows and Experience
by Deirdre Bailey Cross-posted on Savouring the Ish I’ve got a novel on iPads in the grade four classroom waiting to be written. Lots of discoveries, ideas, struggles and triumphs. I just need to find the time to document it all properly. This brief gem, however, is too awesome not to share. Earlier this year, our… Continue reading Crowd Sourcing Fourth Graders
