 Students compare their Mars prototypes before tieing off the final.  6th grade created planets to scale in a lesson yesterday which perfectly illustrates the active learning credo. Instead of doing a worksheet or reading in a book alone, students used an activity from NASA to help them understand planetary size and scale. Students studied the Moon Earth and Mars and then, using measurement tools and balloons, created models of each to scale. Groups planned and measured, discussed and compared the sizes of their gold moons, blue earths and red mars models. Once they were satisfied that they had achieved proper scale, they took their models to the hallway where they measure distance accurately scaled between earth and moon. Their teachers explained that scaling Mars’ distance wouldn’t fit in the hallway as they used meter sticks to walk out the distance. Anytime you give a 6th grader, balloons you’re going to have some joy but what was wonderful about this NASA lesson was the way the abundant smiles translated into learning and understanding distance and scale and space more completely.
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 We are proud of 6th grade's own Mr. Kollar, whose idea for a podcast has made it to the finals of the Queen City Podcast contest! Although you might assume his podcast would be about math, you may also know he's a huge sports fan. His idea is a weekly re-cap of all local sports, from high-school to the pros. He writes, "If I win, you better believe I will be spotlighting former Pirates who are doing great things out there." To learn more and help him get a chance to make his concept a reality, vote at this link once per day! LINK TO VOTE: https://queencitypodquest.strutta.me/gallery?entry_id=1345667 Best of luck to Mr. Kollar! Related Posts: http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/alumni-making-a-splash-in-the-sports-world http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/prismpalooza http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/scholars-and-athletes |
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Author"Celebrating Piedmont" logs only a small fraction of the learning magic the teachers of CMS' Piedmont Middle School, an IB World School. create daily. In that sense, it is authored by all the staff and students of Piedmont. It is curated by Ms. Gurthie who can be reached at the icons above. She'll be happy to brag about Piedmont's teachers and students any chance she gets! Please note this blog has only just begun and we have so much to show off! Come back again soon! |
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