Our crew consisted of a Director, Assistant Director, 4 teachers, and 4 high school interns. The students participated in 5 full days of FUN, rotating through 4 modules each day. By the end of the week they made some amazing creations & hopefully learned a lot about how science is cool.
The short 40-second video below describes the module I taught, called Super Go. There were 3 other modules ~ Amplified, I Can Invent: Pinbug, and Design Studio: Morphed.
Day 1 of Super Go: Students learned about the green sea slug and how it gets its energy from the sun after having its one and only meal of algae. They made a model of this "plantanimal" - it was awesome and slimy. Next, they used their imagination to design prototypes of vehicles that could morph for land, air, and water transportation & use a nature-inspired fuel.
|Day 1 of Super Go - Slime & Group Vehicle Models|
|Day 2 of Super Go - Exploring Animal Movements & Propeller Vehicle Prototype|
|Day 3 of Super Go - Animal design cards, materials, & creative vehicles|
|(more creative vehicles from Day 3)|
Day 4 of Super Go: Students were given a chance to finish designing their vehicles and perfect their ideas. They drew blueprint plans including details about their nature-inspired fuel and living organism designs. Then, they used recyclable materials to create tunnels, obstacles, bridges, and ramps to test the abilities of their vehicles and prepare them for tomorrow's Road Race.
|Day 4 - Awesome design ideas!|
|Day 4 - Ramps and a Tunnel|
|Day 5 - Pit Stop Stations|
|Day 5 - Ready, Set, Go down the racetrack (fast cars = sorry for the BLUR!)|
|Day 5 - Lots of kids having an amazing time|
Day 5 - Vehicles are ready to race
|Day 5 - Who wants to race next?|
What I Learned:
* It's great to try new things, and this experience challenged me to discover how fun the unexpected can be.
* Kids can solve tough problems if you give them the opportunity (and not always the quick answer/fix).
* The youngest students taught me that enthusiasm, giggles, & smiles are the best "payment" for lots of big messes and a huge sense of tiredness by the end of the day.
* The older students taught me that you can't underestimate the incredible ideas that they will come up with when you don't set limits on their creativity.