Understanding How to Work with Others: Update October 28th

Hello Everyone,

What a great day! We all picked out pumpkins, thanks to the parents who set up the Pumpkin Patch outside, and we had some great hot chocolate! Thankfully the weather was pleasant, and we took a group photo outside on our first sunny day in awhile!

Today we ended our first unit. There are a few people still working on the audio for their stop motion (because we need quiet for recordings, and that takes longer to do), but most people have their projects done. We went over the questions students had posted on the board during the unit to make sure we answered the majority of them during the unit, and it seems we did a good job!

In preparation for unit #2, we brainstormed the concept of STRUCTURE. Next week, the unit board will be changed and we will move on to talking about some of the things students brainstormed today. Everyone has been noticing new supplies (such as a full skeleton guy at the back of the room!) arriving to indicate it is time for a new topic.

We also talked about what we can do to better understand one another, especially since we do a lot of cooperative work in MACC. We talked about personality types, and determined whether we were introverts (I) or extroverts (E), sensing (S) or intuitive (I), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and perceiving (P) or judging (J). We did a quick test to see which of these personality traits best described us, and we talked about how understanding ourselves and the different types of people out there can assist us when interacting with partners during projects. No test can tell us everything about ourselves, and these are just tools to get a general idea, but it is a start toward understanding how people are different. See this website if you are curious about what each of the letters means.

Applied Math and Science today involved exploring human power again and expressing it in Watts and Horsepower. Students received a milk jug with water, rope, and a pole. The jug was attached to the middle of the pole with the rope. They recorded the mass of the jug and the distance of the rope. Then, each person took a turn rolling the pole to get the jug to come up toward them, and their partners timed it. With this data, they could find Force, Work, Watts, and Horsepower related to their own human power completing the task!

Finally, we had free choice time!! Some people are using the time to build games for the arcade out of cardboard, while others played games, read, did drawing, or caught up on work.

We look forward to Monday’s Halloween festivities! Please bring back your pumpkins all cleaned out so we can carve them at 11:30 AM. Then we will change into costumes at lunch (don’t wear them to school, just bring it with you.) There is a costume parade at 1:15 PM, and you receive house points for wearing a costume or orange and black! After the parade, we will watch part of a movie and have our snacks. Don’t forget to bring your contributions to the party, whether food or decorations.

Science World field trip forms went home today! I already have one parent volunteer — that was fast! If you are interested in coming with us, let me know right away. We will need two more for the trip. Here is the Science World Field Trip Form if you forgot to take it home.

Have a great weekend!!