On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
Today, we had a wonderful collaboration with our friends at Swanson. Kate and Angela wrote a great post about the day that you can read here. Sphero Golf! If you have not explored Sphero Balls, today is the day to check them out! Sphero is a robotic ball that pairs with your iPad or Smartphone. Using a variety of apps, you can manipulate the ball's movement through coding, programming, or a simple finger swipe. My big takeaways from the day were the following 1) Do have your Spheros fully charged before hand. We ran out of juice on a few. So, a couple of groups had to call it quits and join others a few minutes before our scheduled end time. 2) Do set up your Spheros to pair with a specific device. When you have 12 Spheros in the same space at the same time it’s important to make sure you have a system. Spheros pair via Bluetooth so they remember their previous connections. The more Spheros you use with a device the more it will automatically pa