Heckscher Museum Field Trip

The Extreme STEAM Science Kids campers had a wonderful time visiting Ms.Joy at the Heckscher Art Museum. Campers made art inside the museum after a mini-lesson about the anniversary of the moon landing. They also played “detail detective” as they learned about the artwork on display. Campers completed our annual scavenger hunt in which they had to follow directions and collect photo evidence of their discovery. Heckscher is always one of our favorite trips in Extreme STEAM! 

Digital Den with Stacey

Dash Robotics with Renee

We are halfway through our summer and the students have had an amazing time learning about Dash. We continue to use the different apps that allow us to code and have Dash move throughout the classroom. As we continued our investigative skills, we had a scavenger hunt that the campers enjoyed looking for the Horcruxes from Harry Potter outside the classroom. In the classroom we built a maze and Dash had to go through it in order to find a treasure at the end. Each day brings a new adventure as we went on our class trip to Heckscher Museum, where we had a scavenger hunt and had a great time.

Robotics 2 with Zach

Week 4 is all about mystery in Robotics 2. Our campers were challenged to build with SnappyXO to perform a task. Our campers chose to see if the other campers could use their detective and coding skills to see what the SnappyXO could do! One camper created a Praying Mantis with working clinchers while others created a successful ping-pong ball launcher. Every camper has been successful in designing, arranging and building the parts into a programmable robot-car. Others, yet, are still solving the mystery of how to code the SnappyXO with help from Mr. Zach and Mr. Linden. In Extreme STEAM, every new experience is a learning opportunity and all learning is celebrated on each student’s individual level. SnappyXO is a tool that allows us to teach beginners and experts alike. This week, we are also so excited to be adding Lego MindStorm robots to our Robotics 2 class. We played a fun game of ISPY while campers helped to organize the many bits and pieces that will be used to build and then program our new robots. We believe that it is important for students to be a part of every process so that they take ownership of their learning with this new and exciting learning tool! 

Engineering with Arthur

Science with Tina

I can’t believe this is the end of the 2nd block, the summer is flying by.  We had so much this week. Our young scientists helped solve the crime of who stole Miss Tina’s cherries by observing different fabrics under the microscope. We observed clean samples of 5 different fabrics and then examined the same 5 fabrics that were found at the crime scene. We were looking for changes in the fabric that would show a cherry stain that had been washed away. I am proud to report that most groups were able to identify the shirt the suspect wore!  Later in the week we solved the mystery of the secret letter using chromatography. We were delighted at the kind message we received. Our trip to Heckscher Art Museum was so much fun! I am happy to report that the hydroponic garden is up and running, it took some work but the children and I were able to set it up and plant all our nursery plants. We will patiently watch them grow. Next we will plant a batch of kale in our nursery so we can feed all our animal friends. I am happy to announce the arrival of 2 new friends in the Science lab, Kevin and Sarah, our froglet and tadpole. Kevin is ready to become a frog and we were busy this week getting ready for his transformation. Sarah is a little behind in development but we are taking great care of her while we wait. Our crested geckos had a surprise for us this week when we came in, 2 nice eggs. The children and I are hoping to get baby geckos from them, we will nurture and care for them this summer and hope for tiny geckos. I was happy to see so many parents at our visitation and hope you all enjoyed seeing the progress your children have made. As session one comes to a close, please know how much I am enjoying my time with your children. They are such wonderful, bright and inquisitive kids. I look forward to more fun and learning as the summer progresses.    

Artistic Design with Lori

This week in art we continued with our identity art theme. The campers have been learning about fingerprints. They learned how no two are the same, from finger to finger and person to person. Each camper received an enlarged thumb print to work with. They were given glue and yarn and went to work creating a unique print.