LED Cuff Bracelets

Today the GLOS girls had the challenge of making a closed circuit. What they made was an LED cuff bracelet. On a piece of felt the girls used conductive thread to sew the snap to the positive side of the LED. Then they sewed the negative side of the LED to the negative side of the lithium battery in the battery holder. Then they sewed the positive side to the other snap. When they snapped their bracelet together VIOLA! it closed the circuit and the LED glowed! Then we embellished them and made them fabulous!! Ths was a difficult activity. What the girls found most challenging was the
knot tying and not  letting the thread slip out of the needle. Thank goodness for needle threaders! Mostly, the girls learned the system of a circuit. The girls loved their creation. Our directions came from here.

Super Scientist

Biologist Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell (click to see the short and fascinating talk) has come to one big conclusion from her last twenty years studying elephants -- they're just like us. In this TEDYouth Talk, O'Connell-Rodwell details her work observing these incredible, social animals, examining several individual (and very familiar) characters that play, bond and argue in tight-knit extended families eerily similar to our own.

Wind (Girl) Power

The Girls got to experiment with wind power, circuits and renewable energy. Using small wind turbines, circuit boards and multimeters we got from Vernier the girls were able to create and measure energy, test out blade designs and measure the effects of wind speed. The girls had a lot of fun with their experiments and learned a lot too.

Chatter pix

The girls studied contemporary women scientists, mathmaticians, engineers. They learned about women like  mathmatician Maryam Mirzakhani, Natalie Jeremijenko, architect Zaha Hadid and others. Then the girls used an app called Chatter Pix to create these animated clips, the girls made all the artwork for the Chatter Pix and recorded the voices. Note: they even made the drawings of their woman as a super hero.

 

Check out the videos here:

http://youtu.be/-oZ19Gk50lI

http://youtu.be/RHoGELcPFos

http://youtu.be/cG9s9MTAfJY

http://youtu.be/mB4yKwzWCtA 

Seed Bombs!

The girls learned about the Japanese biologist and farmer Masanobu Fukuoka. He was the original guerrilla gardener! We created seed bombs, or as the girls called the "Throw and Sows". We used native plant seeds, compost and powdered clay, mixed them together and molded them into small round shapes. Then we let them dry. These  "greenades' are to be throw anywhere where there needs beautification.

Dis-assembly Day

The girls had a dis-assembly today. It was really fun to see the girls so excited about using tools and taking apart things. We had an old stereo receiver, a VCR cam-corder, an electronic key board, other electronics and a couple of battery operated toys. I heard a lot of the girls wondering if they had to put their piece back together. They are always thinking. We had a lot of laughs at seeing Elmo and Cookie Monster dissembled yet still moving!

 Taking things apart and demystifying the inner workings
of objects we interact with on a daily basis is a profound way to get to know how the world works.
Dis-assembling toys and old electronics is a playful platform to explore the mechanical and electrical “guts” of the items while
gaining practice using many different tools.

Thanks to all the staff who came to see the girls at work. I envision building an art robot with all of the scrap. 

 

 

Microbes! They are everywhere.

This week the GLOS girls learned about microbes. We also sewed a felt microbe. The girls worked hard learning, creating and helping each other during this fun activity. It was the first time for some of the girls to sew, they did a great job and some of the girls used a blanket stitch. Tomorrow morning the girls are going to wear their creations to school. Mr. Hedges is going to mention them on announcements, asking classmates to ask the GLOS girls about their microbe/art. Here are a couple resources we used this week:

Here are the creations:

Measles

Malaria

The common cold

The flu

And Rabies:

All our microbe friend!