March 13, 2017 at 4:11 p.m.
NCES students show off Project Day creations
NCES students show off Project Day creations
By Kayla Thomason-
Students in 4K had Dr. Seuss-themed projects, kindergarteners studied dental health, first graders learned all about Earth, second graders made reptiles and amphibians out of paper mache, third graders built houses and learned about force and motion, fourth graders learned about animal senses and adaptations, and fifth graders engineered roller coasters.
Pyper Rudis, a second-grade student in Becky Blaser's class made a cobra in the tall stance with hood open, out of paper mache.
She used plates for the hood, used diamond earings for the eyes and wood for the forked tongue. Her grandfather also helped her make the snake have a scaled look.
"It was really fun and I got to put the newspaper on and you know how paper mache is all messy? Well, I got my hands all messy and it was fun," she said with excitement.
Rudis not only enjoyed the project, but learned along the way.
"I know that people take venom from the cobra to make medicine (antivenom) for when people get bit and it was really fun making this," she said.
Derek Sedlak, classmate, made a golden poison frog, and he was proud of his project.
"It feels good," he said of having completed it and being able to show it off.
Nicole Fondie, parent, enjoyed seeing the projects.
"I think it's very important, it gives (the students) a chance to show off what they are doing," she said.
Her daughter, Zoey, also a second grader, made a tree frog, which is sort of an ironic name for the amphibian.
"Tree frogs, they can change their color and they only go on land to mate or lay eggs, you rarely see a tree frog on land," she said.
Zoey Fondie worked on her project for several days and was thrilled her mother got to come to school to see it.
"I love it (that mom got to see)," she said.
Michelle Flohr, first grade teacher, said she saw how thrilled her students were to learn about the world around them.
"They were so excited because it was things that they knew little bits about because it is something that is part of their life but to actually explore it and do experiments and find out the reasons behind why things work is really exciting for them," she said.
They learned that air has force and how it affects things, one group worked on the weather and how it works on Earth, where Earth is in the solar system in relation to other planets, seasonal changes on earth and how the sun and moon impact it.
She said the students were really excited to share their projects with the families, and knowing they'd be sharing these assignments gave them an added incentive to work harder.
"The excitement is just amazing, it's not only sharing with their parents but our whole community, the school community, the families in our school community, the excitement is just great with the kids," Flohr said, adding that she likes when the parents ask the students questions and challenge them think critically.
Fifth-grader Caroline Hunt and her classmates cut foam water noodles in half lengthwise to construct their roller coasters. They taped the ends of the sections together and created two loops. They used marbles of different sizes to represent the carts.
While researching for the project she and her classmates learned about potential and kinetic energy.
"So we learned that kinetic energy is when it is moving and potential is when kinetic energy stops," Hunt said.
They also learned that the larger the marble, the slower it went down the roller coaster.
Hunt enjoyed having parents and grandparents come to see what the students have been working on.
"I think it's pretty cool because they also get to see how other kids around them are working and how well they are working and how their kids are being influenced by the other kids in the class," she said.
Hunt recommends other schools adopt a similar day.
"It was really fun and I think that a lot of other classes should be doing this too," she said.
Her project partner, Hannah Mueller, also enjoyed the project and that it involved groups.
"(It was a) good teamwork project," she said.
Her favorite part of the project was building it with her friends. She also enjoyed having family members come and see what has been going on.
"I like it because your families get to come and see what you've been doing in school for projects," Mueller said.
Hunt and Mueller's other partner, Ava Stevens, also enjoyed having family come.
"I think it's nice that the adults can come in and they actually want to see other people's projects instead of just staying at their kid's project," Stevens said.
When the younger students came they were fascinated by the marbles shooting down the roller coaster, but weren't as interested in the information, she said with a laugh.
Alex Bontz, fifth-grade teacher, let the students decide which project they wanted to do as a grade.
"The kids came up, they wanted to engineer roller coasters to learn about the different energy forces so they learned about kinetic and potential energy and gravity," he said.
They worked in small groups, researched, created blueprints, built the coaster and presented the information in four days.
To add some competition they pretended they were an engineering firm and the students got to try and see who won the bid with the best design and presentation skills.
The younger students and parents voted on the roller coasters and the students turned the responses into a graph to see who won.
The results for the roller coasters varied quite a bit, from incline, number of loops and more.
"We had a water pump one, we had different loops, we have different solid surfaces that they go on to, different heights and measurements," Bontz said.
He thinks Project Day is vital for the students.
"It's huge because we only do this about four times a year so it's really kind of impactful when they know people are going to come in and watch, their efforts go up," he said. "They're very proud of what they accomplish."
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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