Getting Our Glow On!

Have you heard the buzz about our recent EPIC Glow Day classroom transformation experience? It was a day filled with interactive, student-centered math activities in a high-engagement setting (dark classroom room, blacklights, and neon math games). What better way to review this year's math concepts and skills?

We asked students to reflect on the value of their Glow Day experience and how it fits in with The Hive's learner profile. Here's what this week's guest bloggers had to say. Enjoy!

The Glow Day experience was helpful because it taught us how to play games and be flexible and helpful. If one of our group members answered a question incorrectly, other people in the group could explain how to get the correct answer. - @Cheeto111 and @Strawberry!

The Glow Day experience fit in with The Hive learner in a couple of ways. It fit in with Habit of Mind #2 (we support one another in reaching our goals) because my group let each person have enough time to think about how to solve the problems and we also helped each other if one of us didn't know how to do the math. It also fit habit #7 (we own our learning) because my group tried our hardest to get through all of the problems successfully. We never quit. This experience was really fun. - @G-Money

In my opinion, habits #1 (we are kind and respectful toward ourselves and others), #2 (we support one another in reaching our goals), and #7 (we own our learning) came in to play during Glow Day. We needed to own our learning and be our best to be able to complete the math challenges and we needed to support each other during the games. Saying things like "good job" was helpful to make everyone feel like they were being successful. Being kind and respectful is how you play games. - @Koala333

The Glow Day experience was very helpful for me because working in groups helps me understand math better because sometimes other people might know more or have better problem-solving strategies. It was also really helpful to be able to talk out our ideas and share strategies with one another. - @Soccer101

One of the seven habits that I put into action during our Glow Day experience was #3 (we seek out, listen to, and value each other's ideas and perspectives). I really listened to my partner's ideas and I valued how they were thinking about solving some of the problems. I also made some new friends in my group and we worked together so well! - @Moon_Drop

The Glow Day experience helped because I could review some of the math concepts that I thought I forgot. Also, working in groups was really helpful because we could help each other when we got stuck. It was really fun! - @Dream

The Glow Day made math more fun. It was also really useful because I got to practice math that I hadn't done in a while, like addition and subtraction with regrouping. Glow Day made end-of-the-year math review fun! - @M&M

Exploring Energy Through the Design Process

Just when we thought we were ready to wind down our interdisciplinary investigation of Viking culture and evidence of their early encounters with Native people in North America, things were actually ramping up! 

As we learned about the Vikings, their motives for exploration, and how Viking sieges influenced history, we were presented with the perfect opportunity to explore some of the types of siege engines they used and the science behind them - catapults (or trebuchets) in particular. Learners explored the types of energy within different types of systems, the forces and motion that play a role in designing simple machines, the relationship between potential and kinetic energy, and the role energy transfer plays in each stage of launching a catapult's payload. This offered a unique opportunity for an engineering design challenge that required learners to investigate how kinetic energy influences the design of simple machines. Learners were tasked with planning, designing, and testing their own prototype for a catapult (given limited materials and time) that would later be used in our very own Viking siege - SKOL!