Congratulations Science Fair Winners!

Elizabeth Perkel, Bridgitte Butler, Noa Irizarry, Cora Anne Davis and Haley Elwood represented Tritt Elementary at the Cobb / Paulding Regional Science Fair on February 9th.

In our best showing yet, each girl earned a medal: 2nd place for Elizabeth, and 3rd for each of the other girls. A special shout out goes to Suzie Tierney who came down with the flu and wasn’t able to join us.

Save the Date: STAR PARTY

The 3rd Annual STAR PARTY with the Georgia Tech Astronomy Club is coming up on February 13th. This is a bring-your-own telescope event, but the college students will bring some of their equipment to share as well.

We’ll be setting up on the Tritt field starting at 6pm, with a kick-off presentation at 6:30pm and observation until 7:30pm. This is not a drop off event, parents are expected to stay with their students.

In the event of cloud cover, a decision will be made the morning of February 13th on a GO/NO GO for launch.

Their early work is so derivative of the avant-garde movement of the late 1980's.

To cap off a semester full of learning all about engineering, Kindergarten designed and built their own painting tools (a structure) that could create a variety of lines and shapes (its function)! Keep in mind that the testing phase, our paintings, was to experiment with our tool, not necessarily follow best practices from what they’ve learned with Mrs. McFerrin!

You might be able to use a little water to clean off their painting tools, but I recommend having them think of ways to improve on their design and to create a new one with items from around the house! Take a look at their designs and paintings below!

Smith / Colley:

Bower / Eshelman:

Garrett / Swift:

Wall / Rinehart:

Gillespie / Smith:

2019 Science Fair Results!

Our 5th graders worked hard on the Science Fair for the last two months! Take a look at all of the projects below!

Lupiani: 1st - Haley Elwood, “Apple Oxidation”; 2nd (tie) - Suzie Tierney, “Is Lie Detection Possible?” and Elizabeth Perkel, “What is the most effective way to wash hands?”; 3rd– Hannah Nothdurft, “The Rose Knows”

Gardner: 1st - Beck Chaney, “Best Foot Forward”; 2nd - Josie Hutchinson, “What type of soda causes the most damage to teeth enamel?”; 3rd – Hunter Foree, “Can daises survive on other liquids?”

Blick: 1st (tie) – Cora Anne Davis, “Jelly Bean” and Regan Gilbert, “What is the best way to reduce bacteria on your toothbrush?”; 2nd – Finn Roche, “Which liquid makes a plant grow faster?”; 3rd – Ava Chao, “Which sippy cup leaks the least?”

Dino: 1st – Noa Irizarry, “Listen, I promise you’ll smile”; 2nd (tie) – Beatrice Hartwig, “Are you sure you want to eat that cheese?”, and Krish Patel, “Vita-Plants”, and Masha Kozhanova, “Salty Alum Crystal Growth”; 3rd (tie) – Claudia Martin, “Rise Up”, and Carter Whitley, “Wood versus Fire”, and Ivy Yera, “Flour Power”

Pizzuto: 1st - Bridgette Butler, “Which household item has the most bacteria on its surface?”; 2nd – Bryson Markus, “Does your drink rot your teeth?”; 3rd – Max Kalina, “What is the best way to hard-boil an egg?” and George Hoeller, “How hard is your favorite candy?”

Stone: 1st - Avery Blackmon, “How do sugary drinks affect your teeth?”; 2nd (tie) – Ashley Anne Braun, “Effects of Flour” and Abbey Bensman, “Eggs-Periment”; 3rd – McKenzie Ellis, “Which hamster is smarter?”

The following students will be representing Tritt Elementary at the Cobb Regional Science Fair on February 9th: Bridgette Butler, Cora Anne Davis, Haley Elwood, Noa Irizarry, Elizabeth Perkel and Suzie Tierney.

If you build it, they will come.

On the first day of Science Lab this school-year, our First Graders were introduced to a unique problem - Mylo, Suzi and Angelina are lost in the woods! Ever since the kiddos have been studying light & reflection and sound & vibration in order to figure out how to create an emergency signal to get the attention of the rest of their party. We’ve traversed the Tritt Nature Trail to get in the right mindset, and this week the students invented a communication device with only what was packed for the hike….

Fernandes

Moffett

Paine:

Foote:

McElwain / Woodall:

East:

I'll HUFF, and I'll PUFF, and I'll.....

Kindergarten students have been using fairy tales to learn more about engineering. In the pictures below, students constructed houses (our structure) that can stand up to a garage fan blowing on them (our function).

Aside: The thumbnail picture for this post is that of the endangered Red Wolf, which isn’t big or bad!

Bower:

Garrett:

Gillespie:

Smith:

Tommasello:

Wall:

The "Egg"le has landed!

After developing a mission to mars, 4th grade students were tasked with designing / building / testing a Mars lander. The best scientists in the world have only been successful every 2 out of 5 times with their own Martian mission. Would our students do any better with their egg-stronaut?

Burns:

Eichler:

Kappel:

Miller:

Swift:

Monday's Martian Landing!

UPDATE: Insight successfully landed on Mars!

As 4th grade continues their study on space, NASA is getting ready for to land on Mars. This Monday the “Insight” lander should touch down on the surface of the planet. While we send missions to Mars more and more often, interplanetary travels is no easy task. In fact, out of the 47 missions to Mars to date, only 2 out of every 5 are successful! The most amazing thing about landing on the planet is that it is all done by computers! Mars is so far away that engineers have to code the lander to work autonomously, or all by itself! Take a look at the videos below for more about this process, and what the lander will do if it touches down successfully!

Engineering & Design Writing Contest

EngineerGirl Writing Contest is Open! Write a story that celebrates engineering design and problem-solving.The EngineerGirl writing contest is, for the first time, asking students to submit works of creative fiction. We want stories about women and girls saving the day with their wits, skill, and whatever resources they can find to solve the problem. Maybe they are working alone, maybe they are part of an elite team. Maybe they just find themselves in an unusual situation that requires some innovative thinking.We want stories that inspire EngineerGirl readers to think, “I want to be able to do that” or “I can do that.”

WHO: Students in grades 3-12.

WHAT: Write an original, fictional story in which the main character is a female who uses engineering skills to solve a problem. 

WHEN: Submissions are due Feb. 1, 2019. 

Visit www.engineergirl.org for more information!

2nd grade is keeping it cool!

Our 2nd graders are wrapping a 9-week unit on the properties of matter. We looked at the three states (solid, liquid, gas), reversibility and irreversibility, and conductors and insulators. We capped off the quarter by designing / building / testing our own coolers made from household items!

Baer:

Cervi:

Smith:

Teuchert:

Toomey:

Waters:

Wiggins:

Can you hear me now???

Our first graders are studying how light and sound can be used to communicate, demonstrated here by the vibrations on the string of their cup phones. (pictured: Mrs. Paine’s class)

WELCOME BACK!!!!

Welcome back to school everyone! We've got a fantastic year planned in the Science Lab thanks to the Tritt Tiger Foundation! Okay, one quick plug, please donate :-). I had a pretty quick summer, teaching 4 weeks of Project Lead The Way to other teachers around the country (including Las Vegas), camping / mountain biking / paddling for 1 week, 1 week of Specialist Camp at Tritt with 83 of our awesome students, and 1 week of Space Camp for Educators in Huntsville, AL. Water Wednesday was a success with about 12 kids meeting up every week to harvest from and water / weed the gardens. We'll be spending even more time out there this school-year.

Here is a quick rundown of what to expect the first 9 weeks of Science Lab: 

Kindergarten - Starting with sink/float, we'll be studying the properties of matter using a new Project Lead The Way unit, and then move onto engineering design challenges lifted from fairy tales like Jack & The Beanstalk and The 3 Little Pigs. 

First Grade - If we got lost on the Tritt Nature Trail, how would we communicate over a long distance using only the items in our backpack: magnets, string, flashlights, a tennis ball, and others! Including studying weather (for hiking conditions), this will take the first 18 weeks. It all starts off with sound and making a "frog chorus". 

Second Grade - How can we keep an ice pop from melting in a homemade cooler? We'll study insulation and conduction with experiments on every day items!

Third Grade - There sure is a lot of rain this first week of school! These students will study the affect of erosion on soils and rocks. 

Fourth Grade - 3...2...1... Launch into space. We've got 9 weeks of space units starting with designing our own mission to Mars, and followed by building models of our own landers and rovers! 

Fifth Grade - We are studying the scientific method through inherited traits as we prepare for the Science Fair in December (more information to follow, but you can get a pretty good idea on this blog under the, wait for it.... Science Fair tab). 

That is about it! Oh yeah, if you misread one 1/2" binder as a 1 1/2" binder, that is probably my fault. That said, storage space is limited, and if you can track down a thinner 3-ring binder, that would just be, the best.