Ever Wonder Episode 5 (Season Finale)

Presenting Episode 5 (season finale) of Ever Wonder!

Trending Now: Explorer Trading Cards!

Explorers during the Age of Exploration braved the unknown to discover new lands, resources, and more. Trade, religious fervor, empire-building, greed, and a quest for knowledge are just some of the motivations of these explorers and the countries that sponsored them.

In the interest of preserving the legacy of these brave explorers, The Hive has decided to launch a new line of trading cards to honor them. According to market research, Age of Exploration Explorer Trading Cards could quite possibly be the next trend to sweep the nation! Be on the lookout for a sample coming to your home soon! ☺

After students finished creating their trading cards, they were challenged with an opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills (this was the BEST part of the experience). Students were asked to assign a value to each explorer, similar to how a sports collector assigns a value to a baseball trading card. They first worked with a partner to discuss why certain explorers were more valuable or less valuable, depending on their motives, accomplishments, obstacles, and legacies. Listening to one another's perspectives during this partner activity helped shape their ideas about what aspects of exploration were important during that time period as well as their impact. We then gathered as a class to evaluate and debate our choices in a larger forum - it was a lively (and respectful) debate indeed! It was wonderful to see how much these students have grown in their ability to think independently and critically and to hear their conversations and opinions on the explorers' contributions to history. I guess you could say it was a most successful learning expedition!

Credits: Milford Schools; Fifth In the Middle

Ever Wonder? Episode Four

Presenting...  Ever Wonder? Episode Four

Going Berserk: Exploring Energy Through the Design Process

ber·serk

adjective

1. out of control with anger or excitement; wild or frenzied.

   "The Vikings went berserk during the Battle of Stiklestad."
2. 
   

Just when we thought we were ready to wind down our investigation of Viking culture, 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 that would later be used in our very own Viking siege - SKOL! Check out these Viking berserkers!

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!

One of the benefits of the Glow Day experience was that it reminded me of some math concepts that drifted into the back of my mind and it put them in the front again. I had forgotten all about the factors of numbers and how to attack word problems, but Glow Day gave us a chance to practice what we already learned earlier in the year. - @HarryPotter

Some of the Hive habits of mind that I needed to tap into for the Glow Day experience was needing to be kind and respectful toward ourselves and others because we needed to listen to others and how they might solve a math problem. I also needed to view failure as an opportunity for growth because when I got a problem wrong, I discovered what I did wrong so that I didn't make the same mistake again. And finally, we had to OWN OUR LEARNING. I tried hard on every problem and didn't give up. I even tried to solve problems in different ways until I got them right. - @Daisy

The Glow Day experience brought back old memories of math concepts that we have not talked about in a while. I was a bit shaky on factor pairs at first, after a while, I felt WAY better about them. I also realized that working with people that I don't usually work with is a good thing and that we have something to learn from everyone. I'd like to give a shout-out to @ArcticFox and @ZombieCat126 for being so cooperative. - @softballgirl123

The Glow Day experience was really helpful because it made us notice that it is important for us to practice our math skills. It also helped us realize what we still need to practice and how much progress we have made this year. It was a lot of fun. - @Burt

The Glow Day experience was helpful because we got to practice and retrieve math skills that we learned at the beginning of the year and haven't practiced in a while. - @RV17, @PuppyOnline, @Slugger, @TheBee, @Sunflower, @ChickenNugget

The Glow Day experience was helpful and useful because it brought back knowledge that I really needed to remember and practice. Another reason is that it combined math with fun, which really makes me focus. - @RockHam

The Glow Day experience was helpful because it brought back old math skills that we learned a while ago and we had to struggle through some of it to be successful. We got each other back on track. It was a very valuable experience. - @FireDragon5

The Glow Day experience was very fun. I really put some Hive habits of mind into practice. For example, we had to work together and support each other during each of the games. Sometimes I would take a little longer than everyone else so they would wait until I was ready before moving on. When one of us would get confused about something, we would help each other out so that we could keep going. - @MaisyPaisy

The Glow Day experience was a great way to practice the math skills we learned this year. I definitely had to be a creative problem solver because when I came across a hard problem, I had to try different methods to solve it. - @Magician-of-IceCream

The Glow Day experience was great. There were so many Hive habits of mind that were needed in order to be successful. First, we had to work in teams and listen to each other and be respectful. We also supported each other when a problem was hard and we encouraged each other to keep going. Finally, we needed to collaborate with our team so that it didn't result in chaos. - @WritingGod

Glow Day fits perfectly with our Hive learner profile. We put ALL of the habits into action, but there were two that really stood out. First, we needed to be kind and respectful toward ourselves and others, especially when mistakes were made. We also needed to be creative problem-solvers because when word problems got difficult, we had to try different ways to solve them. Overall, Glow Day was a very fun, exciting, helpful, useful, and amazing day and should definitely happen next year and every year to come. - @writingmachine

The Glow Day experience was helpful to me because it polished my understanding of math. For example, the Cubes game helped me to better understand how to attack word problems and the Jenga game helped me learn quick ways to solve problems. - @Seafoam-da-Seawing

The Glow Day experience really helped me understand how to solve word problems. When we got stuck, we would rely on each other to figure out a different way to solve it - like the decimal question with money. It was great to say, "Oh, I get it now!". This was a wonderful experience. - @cheerqueen