Colonial Times
Mr. James Asbury’s 5TH grade students at Myers Elementary School have been very busy. They have been engaged in projects ranging from solving complex formulas, studying the effects of Indian wars and a heavy dose of human biology. These projects are all cross curricular in design. This means while studying history, biology and even math they are also working on reading, language arts and the use of technology. For example, while studying the buildup to the American Revolution students have studied three major wars from King Phillip to Pontiac. To cap off this historical era, students made, “Colonial Brochures” of the thirteen original colonies using Microsoft Publisher. The brochure is bursting with important and interesting information that is historical, exciting, and fun while supporting the language arts curriculum.
It’s a 3D World
It is such a virtual world for our kids today. With that in mind, it’s good to unplug from the 2D world of “screens” and actually experience and learn from 3D real world objects. One of our math standards for 5TH grade is finding area and volume of rectangles. Having learned the simple formula of LWH=V (volume of a rectangle or square), we set out to find volume of real world objects. One project was to find the actual volume and surface area of a cereal box brought from home. The goal is to expand a theoretical skillset to practical use in 3D reality. The students have gone far beyond the 5th grade standard of rectangles and cylinders into more complex formulas. They have solved area and volume for objects such as pyramids, spheres (globes and basket balls), cones, frustum cones (cups and buckets), parabolic cones (footballs) and anything for which we could find a formula to solve the area and volume. The V=LWH rectangle formula had been surpassed with formulas such as the volume of a frustum cone V=1/3 πh (r2 +Rr+R2).
Inside and Out
Students have recently completed a biology unit in class. The students conducted research on various body systems from the bones and digestive system to the nervous system and everything in-between. Project phases included an informative research paper, a PowerPoint presentation and a diagram that included a drawing, labels and a short description of the organ or system. We are keeping busy and doing our best to have fun in the process.