Noetic Math Challenge Fall Winners

This program is a nation-wide program that provides challenging problems to over 750 schools throughout 47 states.  

The problems are not your ordinary math problems, they focus more on real life situations, logic, and general problem solving.  With these problems intertwined in the Iowa Core, it provides students things they are learning in the classroom while adding higher order thinking skills.  

It is very challenging for students, many mistakes are made and with that comes learning from each other and themselves for future problems.  Pictured are the 3rd-6th Grade Class Champions; Landon, Cael, Zach and Persephanie.  Cael, Landon and Zach also earned National Honor Roll status, meaning that their score was in the top 10% of all the 36,000+ students who took the Noetic tests this fall throughout the country.

An idea...turned into reality

A couple of 4th grade boys wanted to build their own car, a simple idea really, but one they took to a higher level.  The boys then wanted to add an engine to the car and I insisted that the car must be able to steer also.  After hours of building, and tearing apart they completed this task that starter out as a simple idea.  Great engineering from these two young men!

A short video of the car:

Problem to Ponder:

Wind Powered Cars

A few students in 5th grade have been working to use the power of the wind to move a car at least 20 feet.  Students are learning about testing and making hypothesis from those tests to improve their invention.  It has been frustrating at times, but in the end it is always rewarding!

Rocketry

A new topic was chosen by some 6th graders to explore this year.  Rocketry is the study of making and understanding why rockets fly into the air.  Students made a rocket from a kit and launched it three different times.  They have compared the variables at each test and used the estimated launch distance of 1,500 feet in the air to calculate various things.  The next focus for them will include launch angle, as all launches to this date have been straight up, or at 90 degrees.

What's it take to float a boat?

4th Grade students have been engineering boats made from tinfoil.  They studied the property of buoyancy and made several attempts at floating pennies in their boats.  Many tests were performed and many boats sank, but learning and a new model came from it.  Almost 400 pennies were floated on the boat using only a 12inch by 12inch piece of tinfoil.

State Math Bee

Today was the annual State Math Bee held by the Central Rivers AEA.  The 6th Grade team at West Elementary qualified a couple weeks ago by placing 5th in the Eastern Regional.  The kids worked hard in between testing days and it paid off.

The team of Talan, AJ, Ethan and Brady came away with the bronze medals at the state competition.  These students were tested over the topics found in the Iowa Core; Number Systems, Expressions and Equations, Geometry, Statistics and Probability, Ratios and Proportions.  We are very proud of them here at West Elementary for their third place finish!

Spring Noetic Class Winners

Math students from 2nd grade through 6th grade have spent a lot of time on the Noetic Problem Solving program lately.  The program is a nation-wide program that provides challenging problems to over 750 schools throughout 47 states.  The problems are not your ordinary math problems, they focus more on real life situations, logic, and general problem solving.  With these problems intertwined in the Iowa Core, it provides students things they are learning in the classroom while adding higher order thinking skills.  It is very challenging for students, many mistakes are made and with that comes learning from each other and themselves for future problems.  Elizabeth, Carter, Zach, Cael and Talan were all class winners this year.  Talan and Zach also earned National Honor Roll status, meaning that their score was in the top 10% of all the 34,000+ students who took the Noetic tests this spring.  

Congrats to all the students who persevered through the tough problems, the errors, mistakes and finally the new learning to make themselves all better math students!

Creative Writing Opportunity

Dozens of students in the elementary schools participated in the annual Iowa Reading Association Creative Writing contest this spring.  Many stories and poems were created during writing classes and covered a wide variety of topics.  We have many talented writers here in Independence and the results from the judges certainly showed that this year.  
Pictured are four students from West Elementary that were awarded 1st place in the Eastern Council Division of the state.  

Pictured is Marley- 1st Place Short Story 4th Grade, Matthew- 1st Place Poem 4th Grade, Connor- 1st place Poem 5th Grade, Akeelah- 1st Place Short Story 6th Grade

These four students were honored at the Creative Writing Banquet last week.  They received books, pencils and certificates for their writing.  Matthew, Connor and Akeelah were also crowned STATE CHAMPIONS and are invited to a special banquet in Ames this summer.  This is quite an accomplishment by all the hard working students here at West Elementary School.

4th Grade 3D Print Project

A few students were introduced to an online 3D design program this year.  Each student uses Tinkercad.com to add and manipulate common shapes to form their train cars.  Details were then added for that individual touch.  The MakerBot 3D printer can only print in one color, so multiple designs were created to get different colors of the components.  Many measurements were used when planing and designing each model by the students.  I would say they are ready to design the cars at Ford or GM!

Great job Taylor, Zach, and Reece!

Brain Teaser for April

How much can 133 Grams of plastic hold?

Sixth grade students had the job of creating the Main Street Bridge in downtown Independence.  The students used an online CAD program called Tinkercad to make their designs.  We are in the process of testing these bridges for accuracy and durability.  This student created a bridge that weighed 133 grams, or about 1/4 of a pound.  We tested each bridge and his was one of many that held over 100 pounds of books, or 45,360 grams.  Pretty impressive for the first trial run in designing an item to not only transport cars across the Wapsi, but also holdup to that many pounds!  Great job once again Independence ELP kids!

3-D Learning

The MakerBot 3-D printer finishing up a bridge

Sixth grade students have been working on a bridge challenge using Tinkercad.com.  Their challenge was to rebuild the main street bridge.  The bridges will be assessed by how much weight they can hold, overall design look, a wind tunnel test, and realistic features.  Students were in total control of their project and their finished design must meet measurement standards.  While all these plans were taking place they also had to keep in mind a budget, or total cost of the concrete for the project.  The student that has the lightest bridge will achieve high marks for budgeting and design.  I hope the main street never collapses, but if so we have some pretty cool models the city could begin looking at!

3 examples of the bridge designs by 6th Graders

Watch out below!

Fifth grade students have been learning about programming and building robots.  Using the LEGO NXT learning kits they have created robots and programmed them to various things.  The most challenging part for the students was using the sensors to allow the robots to react to different situations.

ScienceFlix

ScienceFlix is an excellent way to introduce students to a variety of science topics.  These topics have instructional videos and written information so students can learn about dozens of science related topics.

The website can be found at: ScienceFlix

Students can access the content by using their AEA school username and password.