Finished Rube Goldberg, on to Fuel Cell Cars!

Hello everyone,

Today we finished our Rube Goldberg contraptions, and I was very much impressed with the way everyone worked together in a small space, creating complex machines designed to do simple tasks. Overall, there was a lot of creativity and thinking going on in Division 5! We have now cleaned up the evidence and are ready to move on to new things.

Tonight’s homework is to take the three days of Rube Goldberg journal entries, edit them, make them neat for Ms. D to read, and ensure there is a full picture of your contraption labeled with the simple machines used. Also, please end with two paragraphs telling me what you learned from the experience or what you might try around this Rube Goldberg idea in the future. Due tomorrow, please.

If you have not turned in our mini research worksheet on a “Greatest Invention”, please submit to the inbox as it is now overdue.

Your marks for your speeches, both for the written portion and the speaking (which are separate marks), will be given to you tomorrow. Overall, you did a great job, and I was impressed by the variety of topics! Please have Mom and Dad sign the French PowerPoint marks and Math Project marks if you have not done so already. These assignments should be brought back to class, as we put them in our portfolios as a record of our learning over the year.

We had a great Celebration of Learning assembly as a whole school today. We have these once a month to share learning from the classroom and community. We had reminders about making sure we use the crosswalk safely in front of the school. There will be a Food Bank Drive soon, so look for posters and a box to appear in our classroom soon for donations. If you are participating in the Math Genius program, there was not a draw for November, so in December there will be a double draw. Please continue to work on the Library’s Reading Program. Today, those students who had read for 50 nights were recognized by Ms. Ho for their reading.

During gym time, we did some general exercising as a whole group, and then we worked on our new focus in gym, types of movement. Students have been discussing the concept of “neutral” body language, and then have been moving from neutral into other types of movement based on characteristics, such as fast, medium, slow (speed); high, medium, low (height); and leading with parts of the body. With this in mind, we have been moving to create different characters, communicating personalities with body movement rather than words. Overall, it was a great, creative workout!

At the end of the day, we started talking about fuel cell cars! In preparation for tomorrow, students should watch for homework:

The SAE Website Video Called Fuel Cell Challenge which tells them how to put the car together and use it. THE VIDEO IS UNDER THE ASSEMBLY TAB — you don’t need to read the rest.

Honda’s Video Called Video Guide to Fuel Cell Technology (Please be aware this link is on You Tube and you need to skip the ads. Generally they are not inappropriate ads given the content of the video.

If you really enjoy the chemistry part, then also watch this video by Digital Splash Media animating the fuel cell science.

If anyone has not finished through page D in Math, please try to do so, as we will mark these in class together tomorrow.

Have a good evening!