MOST POPULAR VIDEOS

• 1:34 Week 14 of 2022-23| 5th-8th Grade Science

  This week's slideshow highlights: students observing the transfer of energy between organisms and predator prey relationships in our classroom Lake Michigan Aquatic Ecosystem during feeding times; 6th grade students have been busy working in cooperative groups of engineers to design experiments backed up by their team's research to test variables that impact the effectiveness of "green roofs", which they learned can help combat problems such as the "Urban Heat Island Effect" and urban runoff that often leads to increased flooding of cities like Chicago; an 8th grade scientists setting up their STEM Fair Project experiment that they devised to investigate natural substances that can be used to fight bacteria on surfaces; and 5th grade class enjoying some hard-earned game time as they played cooperative board games and card games at the end of class on Friday to continue to strengthen our classroom community! Thank you for checking in with us this week!

  Uploaded Dec 03, 2022 by Gerard Kovach
• 3:10 May 16-20,2022

  This week's slideshow highlights: 6th grade students collaboratively exploring Energy in their integrated Maker-Space + Science Inquiry Unit--this week they worked on and tested outside their redesigns of their solar cars and they also began investigating wind turbines' energy conversions by cooperatively assembling and collecting data on electrical energy output from their turbine models; 7th grade continued with their SEPUP Unit exploring Evolution with a couple of lab investigations where they learned about geologic drill cores, fossils, and trace fossils and inferences that can be drawn from those pieces of evidence; 8th grade students continued exploring their SEPUP Unit on "How can we make safer cars?" where they investigated how balanced and unbalanced forces impact a car's direction, speed, and acceleration; there are a couple of pics of 7th and 8th graders demonstrating the NGSS Science & Engineering Practices of "Obtaining, Evaluating, & Communicating Information", "Analyzing & Interpreting Data", and "Engaging in Argument from Evidence" by sharing their ideas from their Science Notebooks in front of their class; and lastly, there are a couple of pics of some students viewing microscopic soil mites collected from our class worm compost bin--if you look closely at the last pic you can even see an offspring mite on top of a parent mite. Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

  Uploaded May 21, 2022 by Gerard Kovach
• 00:07 SEL 'Something Nice Project'

  In this task, students chose a notebook for themselves. Then each student wrote a positive comment about another student on an index card and glued it onto their page. After each comment, they added a sticker. We will finish this project the week after spring break!

  Uploaded Apr 08, 2022 by LeiAnna Carrasco
• 1:57 Week 5: Sept. 27-Oct. 1

  This slideshow shows: 8th grade students exploring Genetics through a coin toss model to better understand how traits are inherited from parents to offspring; 7th grade students learning how to use our compound light and digital microscopes to view unicellular specimens at various magnifications; and one of our class herpetologist helping take care of our 2 Bearded Dragon lizards' ecosystem along with a student holding one of our lizards with a hat on designed by a classmate :)
  
  Thanks for checking in with us!

  Uploaded Oct 03, 2021 by Gerard Kovach
• 1:04 Words Clouds- My Favorite Words Featured

  Students read the story The Word Collector and we discussed the power of our words. Then students chose their favorite words to share to included them in their word clouds.

  Uploaded Sep 29, 2020 by Ryan Cherry
• 00:19 1st Grade

  1st Grade project - As Earth spins, we face different directions, so the sky looks different to us

  Uploaded Jun 07, 2021 by Sheryl Slechta
• 00:48 5th Grade Bio-Poems Featured

  We have been learning and thinking about identity this week and students created these poems about themselves and did a great job!

  Uploaded Sep 18, 2020 by Ryan Cherry
• 4:23 Decatur Student WOW Presentation Example

  WOW Presentation, World of Wonder, is a project where middle school students pick a STEM topic of their own interests, then create a multimodal presentation to share with their classmates. WOW is another way of strengthening classroom community and providing student voice in their own learning!

  Uploaded May 20, 2021 by Gerard Kovach
• 00:15 Earth Day Composting Posters Featured

  Check out the progress students are making on their composting posters that educate other students about the

  Uploaded Apr 23, 2022 by Ryan Cherry
• 1:24 Reimagining School Lunches Project
  Uploaded May 30, 2020 by Ryan Cherry