Ins and Outs of Elementary Engineering

I'm working on getting a little more organized for substitutes and such. I have started a document that gives general guidelines for different materials in the lab and classroom management techniques. My classroom setup is that of a specialist. I see 22 classes each week, 1st - 5th grades for one hour and kindergarten for a half an hour. There are four classes each of kindergarten through 3rd grade with a maximum of 24 students in each class. There are three classes each of 4th and 5th grades with a maximum of 32 students in each class. At each grade level there are approximately 96 students. This poses challenges for project storage and managing materials that are shared at a grade level and between grade levels.  Below is the link to the live document as I create it. Feel free to take a look and also check back for updates and improvements.

Elementary Engineering Notes

Week 3 #NASAMgUE

Our #NASAMgUE teacher team met on Wednesday to prepare for meeting with students on Friday.  We had decided that we would each work through the NASA microgravity lessons as they fit into our groups' schedules.  Each teacher has a set of groups with different jobs.  One teacher was out of town, so I worked with her students to keep the process going.  The groups that came to my classroom are working on building a simulator to do tests and collect data before we take the SLED to NASA Johnson Space Center.  The other group will be building the actual SLED, but we are waiting to proceed with planning until the kit comes from NASA.  We will have the students refine their design one they can see and touch the materials.  The last group is the materials management group.  They will be responsible for inventorying, maintaining, and securing the necessary materials we need for this project.  As a whole group, we reviewed the deployment process.  The target, Mars insertion points will be moving, and the Launch Pad will be moving.  We think in opposite direction, but we aren't certain yet.  In order to construct a simulator, we needed to locate a cardboard similar in size to the target at NASA.  We had the dimensions of the the insertion points but not the distance between.  One student in the simulator group thought of using the marked 12 inches like a map scale to calculate the distance between the two insertion points.  I can't wait to see how close they got to the actual dimensions.  One teacher had difficulty trying to get to the NASA microgravity website with activities for students.  Another teacher had difficulty with a hands-on microgravity activity she was trying to have students film in slow motion.  However, every projects has challenges.  We look forward to seeing the progress to come.  We are still working on finding mentors to work with the students, but we are not able to wait for or rely on that possibility.  Time is of the essence.