Measuring and Engineering

A big happening in our classroom is the start of our new engineering unit. We started this unit by gathering ideas about engineers and technology (they believed that anything considered "technology" had to be plugged in, amazing).  The girls were shown white out and were told that it was technology--by working together, they discovered that anything that was created to solve a problem was "technology".  The girls were then divided into small groups and given a mystery bag.  Inside each bag was an item that they usually would not consider to be "technology".  As a group, the girls had to answer several questions, including, "What does your object do, what problem does it solve, and what material is it made of?"  The group then reported back to the whole class on what they discovered about their object.  Make sure you ask your daughter what technology she found in her bag!

We also began our measurement unit yesterday.  We discussed that not all rulers are made the same--emphasizing that the girls must always measure from the "0" mark (whether it is shown or implied by the end of the ruler).