3rd Grade Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Over the past two weeks third grade students have been investigating Newtons 1st law:

An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. 

To start off our exploration students brainstormed in small groups about movement and force. We then created a class web on an anchor chart to use as a reference throughout our lesson. When we thought of anything new, we added to it!

After students got their wheels turning about force and how things move I placed a long rope in the center of our classroom. Students were asked if the rope was moving or not and to provide evidence as to why they thought that way. While we experimented ways to move the rope we came to the conclusion that the rope only moved when the push or pull (force) was unbalanced. To reinforce this idea, we then used tug-of-war and tested out students predictions.

Scenario Examples:

• Taller students exert more force than shorter students.
• Older students exert more force than younger students.
• One teacher exerts more force than two 3rd grade students.

Throughout this activity students questioned, predicted, and problem solved. As a challenge students were asked how to alter specific scenarios to create a balanced force. Ask your child what their favorite scenario was!

Check back soon to see what 3rd graders will be doing next as they continue to explore forces!

-Mrs. Henderson

1st Grade Sounds and Vibrations

This week in STEM Mrs. Smith's 1st grade class engineered their own kazoos to explore sounds and vibrations. Before we began our lesson students made predictions as to what materials would create the loudest/clearest sound. Tin foil, saran wrap, or wax paper? Students were allowed to express their creative side by decorating their kazoos! Ask your child to play a song for you on their new recycled musical instrument.

Here is our workstation before the 1st grade engineers got to work!

We will continue our exploration of sounds and vibrations in the coming weeks. In the meantime, ask your child how sounds are made or to sing our sound song (it's pretty catchy, so don't be surprised if you find yourself singing it on your own). 

-Mrs. Henderson : )

Welcome to Mrs. Henderson's STEM blog!

My name is Kasey Henderson and I am your child's new STEM teacher here at Cove Elementary School. I am a graduate of Salem State University with a bachelor of science in Criminal Justice Forensics and a masters degree in Elementary Education. I am extremely excited to be working with your children in hopes of instilling my love of science in them. I plan to integrate science into everything we do in both STEM and media classes so their exposure to science will increase tremendously this year! If you have any questions please feel free to email me @ KHenderson@beverlyschools.org. I have also created a Twitter account to post quick updates and share any interesting STEM articles or sites I may find. Please feel free to follow me, my username is @Cove_STEM. Cheers to a wonderful year in STEM!

A peek into our ever-evolving workspace! : )

-Mrs. Henderson