NEWS AT THE MABIN SCHOOL

 

Mabin Comes Together

This year's edition of our Habitat For Humanity Gingerbread Fundraiser was another huge success. Our Mabin community showed up in full force to decorate their gingerbread houses and raise $9520.00 for two great causes — Habitat For Humanity and The Arise Shelter.
"The whole day went really well," says student coordinatos, Lauren in Grade 6. "It was challenging when people first arrived because we had the job of getting them organized and there were a lot of people. But, it was great to see everyone enjoying the event—not just us and the kids!"

 

The Robotics Challenge

The thumping music, the cheering crowd and all that pressure of getting your robot to perform when it counts — our two Grade 5 Robotics teams, the Lego Lifesavers and the The Other Team rose above it all and once again made Mabin proud competing in the Lego League Challenge held recently at Crescent School.

"Our robot just decided to do really well today," says The Other Team member, Aaron. "It wasn't doing this well on any other day, so I'm not sure what happened. It's the best our robot ever did!"

Both teams have spent the past two months, under the guidance of MJ and Michelle, getting ready for the tournament, building robots, learning how to program them and doing lots of collaborative problem solving in order to score as many points as possible on the big day.

After the first round, the two teams were placed 9th and 14th, good enough to get them both into the Sweet 16 elimination playoffs. The Other Team managed to move on from there, eventually being eliminated in the Final Four. Nonetheless, both teams came away with trophies. The Lego Lifesavers won an award for displaying the core values of Gracious Professionalism throughout the competition while the The Other Team won an award for Most Comprehensive Research for their accompanying project.

"And we were so close to getting the Innovative Solution Award," says Audrey, referring to the judging for the research portion of the challenge. Before the robot competition can get underway, each team must present their finished collaborative project, the culmination of a two month long bio-medical engineering study which was the theme for this year's competition.

Says Audrey, "When Dr. Hacker came in to speak to us, he was telling us how every five to ten years, you need to get a replacement pacemaker because the battery wears out. And so our team decided we should find a way to recharge a pacemaker inside your body. We came up with an idea to put a tiny water wheel in the aorta so when the blood flows through, it makes the wheel spin and this recharges the pacemaker."

"We designed the cutting edge crutch," says Aaron about the The Other Team's project. "We were inspired by MJ's husband, Bill, who (conveniently) broke his leg while we were doing our research and didn't like his regular crutch. We said, Why don't we make a better crutch to make it more comfortable and more convenient? We added extra padding on the armpit and extra padding for the hands. We put a special table clip on, a snow cleat that flips up and down and a little doorknob to hold things. We made it far superior to regular crutches. We also designed the Air Cast which has a special air pump to make your cast how ever tight or loose you want it!"

Says MJ, "I am so very proud of this class for all their hard work. My deep pride comes from knowing how well they negotiated a steep learning curve to learn the essentials and minutia of programming and robotics, aspects of current topics in biomedical engineering research, and in the creation of a project which connected ideas and sought to move the field of research forward. The FIRST Lego League is a perfect piece of curriculum and competition for our school because it balances deep knowledge, innovation and the need for high level cooperation and teamwork. The 16 Habits of Mind were ever-present markers of the success of the class. It was no surprise therefore, that the class left the day-long event having won awards for teamwork and project research and high standings in the robotic performance. They were a triple threat! Though the event is over, the lessons learned have helped forge this class into a tighter unit and shown them that their effort, creativity, cooperation and persistence can result in great things.

Gone Fishing

"Right now we're making fins," says Audrey about the Grade 2 fish study which has its hooks in the Art Room. "We'll decorate our fins and attach them. Then we'll stuff our fish with cotton so they look real."

"They'll be 3-D!" pipes in Lily.

The culprit for this sudden angling interest is none other than Mr. Fishy, the Grade 2 betta fish which took up residence in the classroom earlier in the year. "The students really wanted a class pet and we decided a fish would be the best choice," recalls Jillian. "There was so much interest in the type of fish and which colour it should be. We decided on a betta fish and the children were so excited about his arrival and had so many questions, it just seemed natural to study more about fish."

The class study has included a focus on classifying and discussing what makes a fish a fish. They are also learning about vertebrates and scales and, relating to their prior knowledge of skeletons in Grade 1, are exploring the skeletons of the fish they are learning about. The students also had an opportunity to get up close and sketch Mr. Fishy, scientifically labelling the different parts of his body such as the dorsal and caudal fins.

"There is a growing interest in deep sea fish that live in the Abyssal and Bathypelagic Zones of the ocean," says Jillian. "The kids are fascinated with just how freaky the creatures are down there and all the things they have to do to survive in the dark and harsh ocean conditions."

"Like the gulper eel," says Claire. "It can swallow stuff twice as big as itself because he has such a big mouth." "The angler fish has a big teeth and a light on his head and he has his own fishing pole for catching other fish,"says Dylan.

To help consolidate their knowledge, each child has now chosen an individual species of fish they'd like to learn more about and is embarking on their very own non-fiction book about their choice. This process will allow them to practice their research skills and learn more about those necessary elements to include when creating a non-fiction book. The class has also logged in to the Knowledge Forum database, contributing their fish wonderings and responding to their classmates’ queries.

"After looking at real fish and being inspired by their shapes and colours, we decided to create our own three dimensional fish out of paper, pastel, and paint," explains Megan about the integrated Art room aquarium. "The students designed two pieces of paper fish, placing the paper on textured plates and rubbing with oil pastels to create different colours and textures.

"Because it gives it a scaly look," explains Aaron.

Water colour paint added even more colour and visual appeal to the fish before the students glued them together, leaving a small opening for the stuffing process. Once fins were added and the details completed, the stuffing commenced, puffing up their creations into vibrant, shimmering fish.

Says Megan, "It'll look great when they're all hanging in the Grade 2 classroom — a life sized aquarium!"

Bone Heads

An emerging bone study opened up two intriguing investigative opportunities for our Senior Kindergarten class this term.

The first mystery involved the digestive habits of owls. In the middle of the term, the SK's buddied up with our bone experts in Grade 2 (who did their own extensive bone study in Grade 1) to extract the small bones from barn owl pellets. The students then used their extractions as clues to deduce what owls ate, discovering feathers, jaws, ribs, skulls, and much, much more.

"There was total silence in the room," says Julie Binmore, recalling the morning. "They were all really excited, whispering to each other. And the stuff they found was incredible. Michelle did such a great job of planning it all. Each dyad uncovered at least 20 bones—things like mole skulls and rib cages. Most found something in every category of bones!"

A broken arm is never a good thing—unless it reveals a new avenue for learning! And that's exactly what happened when Daniel in SK broke his arm early in the year and the class had a chance to look at his x-rays on the Smart Board. The students had lots of questions and wonderings about bones and breaks, sparking a class study that has encompassed a visit from a Marc Freeman (SK dad and radiologist), skeleton puzzles with labels to consolidate bone vocabulary, great research books and videos and even the construction of skeletons out of dry pasta.

Recently, the class encountered a new puzzle to solve when another mysterious bone just happened to appear in their classroom. "I told the kids that it was found in an Ontario forest and that we know for sure it's real," says Julie. "They were really excited looking at it with the magnifying glasses, even smelling it. At first, their theories were so earnest and in many cases, off base. But, as they became more expert, their questions were way more accurate and specific."

Jack: The bone smells really bad and I wonder what is inside it? I saw a hole and I know that the bone is broken. I see a crack which is how that I know that it is broken.

Gabriel: I notice that it sort of looks a human's muscle. I actually mean a bone, this bone (holding up to arm) or this (holding up to thigh) bone.

Scarlett: It has two cracks at the end. I notice that it is so dirty. Probably because it was in the forest.

Kalan: There is a hole. And a mini hole and I think the holes are where the bone attaches to something.

Unsatisfied with their guesses about where the bone might come from, several students suggested sending it home to their radiologist expert. "We did an interactive writing letter as a whole class and listed our wonderings for Jack’s Dad," says Julie.

The students had already figured out it was a femur and Marc was able to share with the class that the mystery bone had come from a deer.

"When you take kids seriously, believe they are intelligent and give them authentic enrichment experiences, there is no limit to how far they can go," says Julie about the enthusiasm and learning the SK's have shown around these two bone mysteries and more. "This is why we plan these kinds of activities."

 

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