Wild at Wahsega!

I was very fortunate to attend the Wahsega field trip with 4th grade. Students took seven classes with the amazing staff, played lots of gaga ball and other games, and experienced skits and storytelling over a campfire.

Students took an entomology class (the study of insects) where they were able to dissect some very large grasshoppers.

The best class (IMHO) was Stream Ecology. Students collected macroinvertebrates to determine the health of the stream.

Below are a few more pictures I was able to take, including of Grumpy, the alligator, who we were able to pet!

Second Grade is keeping it COOL!

Second Grade has been studying states and properties of matter. We examined reversible and irreversible changes, solids / liquids / gases, and conductors and insulators. They students designed and built coolers out of everyday items. They had to keep ice pops frozen for 30 minutes. The control ice pop measured ~7mm of liquid after time was up, and most students only measured 1-3mm of liquid. Great job!

Fleming:

Cervi:

Lupiani:

Waters:

Smith:

Teuchert:

We've had a busy two months in the Science Lab!

Your students have been very busy in Science Lab this semester. Check it out below!

Kindergarten - We’ve been using fairy tales to learn about engineering practices and to study properties of materials. Here the kids predict whether materials will float or sink, and if they’d be useful to make a boat for a toy soldier (Steadfast Tin Soldier). To finish the quarter will be building houses a la The 3 Little Pigs.

First Grade - Students have been studying sound and vibrations. Before the break each student took home a cup phone they made in class. Next up we’ll be studying light and shadows.

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Second Grade - Students used the engineering design process to create coolers that would keep an ice pop frozen for the length of one lab. We studied states of matter, conductors / insulators and reversible / irreversible changes. We are testing the coolers this week, and then moving on to space and the seasons.

Third Grade - Students have been studying soil (including which grow beans best!) and forest fires. We are wrapping up the quarter by experimenting with rocks, and then moving on to erosion for quarter 2.

Fourth Grade - Students are keeping data on our local weather, studying extreme weather, determining the role of our orbit and seasons on weather (direct v indirect sunlight experiment pictured below), and have been helping in the garden to end the quarter. We’ll continue to study weather and climate thru December.

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Fifth Grade - Mrs. Stone’s class is building new raised beds below, but the students have been working on landforms and the constructive / destructive forces that shape them. In partnership with Mrs. Pascual they are creating a commercial for a Natural Park using the Clips app that focuses on the unique landforms of that park. We are moving on to classification in the science lab though!

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Happy Fall Y'all

Autumn is finally here! It sure doesn’t feel like Fall, but September 23rd was the Autumnal Equinox. The amount of night and daylight we experienced in that 24 hour day was 12 hours each, or equal! Every day for the next 3 months will experience a couple minutes less of daylight than the day before it.

Here is a great article with more details: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/9/20/20874986/fall-equinox-2019-september-23.

Take a look at this video for further explanation!

Mr. Giunta's Fall Break 2019

I don’t know about you guys, but I am a big fan of our school calendar. I miss work too much in the summer, and it is nice for everyone to get to recharge every month and half or so during the school-year. Most of the time I opt for “stay-cations” here in Georgia or visit family in Florida, but this time… I. Went. All. Out. Newfoundland & Labrador.

Of course my vacations are full of lots of learning and I wanted to share some of that experience with you all.

Newfoundland & Labrador is about the size of California, but the population of Yuma, Arizona. The largest city is St. John’s, and that was my home base. It is the northeastern most city, and standing on its peninsula of Cape Spear to watch the sunrise, I was one of the first people (20 other tourist had the same idea) in all of North America to see it that day! It made me think about how we are studying orbits in 4th grade!

Here are just a few pictures from my adventure:

This is part of Bell Island where I went sea kayaking. There were amazing waterfalls and caves!

This is part of Bell Island where I went sea kayaking. There were amazing waterfalls and caves!

This caribou was one of the many critters at the Salmonier Nature Park, a reserve for injured animals (like the Chattahoochee Nature Center!). They also had owls and eagles, lynx and fox, beaver and otter, and moose!

This caribou was one of the many critters at the Salmonier Nature Park, a reserve for injured animals (like the Chattahoochee Nature Center!). They also had owls and eagles, lynx and fox, beaver and otter, and moose!

The Geocenter is a museum dedicated to the earth science of the province. They had thousands of rocks, some of which were over 1 billion years old! This glacial cobble made me think of the work we are doing in 5th grade on constructive and destructi…

The Geocenter is a museum dedicated to the earth science of the province. They had thousands of rocks, some of which were over 1 billion years old! This glacial cobble made me think of the work we are doing in 5th grade on constructive and destructive forces of landforms.

I’m relaxing on a 560 million year old cliff over the Atlantic Ocean at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, a UNESCO site. Next to me are fossils molds from some of the earliest known living organisms on our planet!

I’m relaxing on a 560 million year old cliff over the Atlantic Ocean at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, a UNESCO site. Next to me are fossils molds from some of the earliest known living organisms on our planet!

Congratulations on selection to the 2019/20 Tritt VEX IQ Robotics Competition Team!

The following students have been selected for this year’s Tritt Robotics Team:

5th Graders: Caleigh Bacon, Kate Bezbatchenko, Yuri Sung, Bryce Gilbert, Enzo Kukreja, Ethan Greenberg, Everett Soller, Jack Allgood, Johnny Howell, Raghav Sundar and Tristan Batherosse

4th Graders: Cayla Wise, Hailey Mallory, Julianna Crowell, Mira Ballantyne, Riley Wilhoite, Alex Moody, Charles Weiner, Fonti Fontanillas, Jack Mitchell, Jay Carlton, Kaden Brown, Nicholas Andrews and Noah Needle

WELCOME BACK!!!

Welcome back to school everyone! I had a terrific summer break, and I hope you all did too! I was able to travel with Project Lead The Way to train other teachers. I visited Orlando twice, DC once, and was in downtown Atlanta once. DC was the most fun, I met some other teachers from around the country and we visited most of the major monuments and museums the day before the training started.

I also traveled a bit for fun, visiting some friends in Denver and vacationing at Amelia Island. I read a half dozen books, gardened at home quite a bit, checked out some Braves games, did some acting at Red Door Playhouse, and hiked and paddled with friends and family.

Take a look at the video below to hear what we’ll be up to starting off the school-year!

Donate faster, I hear banjos!

My dad taught my brothers and I to canoe on the Chattahoochee River when we were little kids. If he hadn’t, then I would never have gotten in to science education. It was my hook towards exploring the natural world.

While working at the Chattahoochee Nature Center 20 years later, I was given the opportunity to lead 12 underserved youth on Paddle Georgia as a part of a grant. Paddle Georgia is a week-long, 100-mile paddling and camping trip for 400 people that visits a different Georgia River each year. I jumped at the chance! And I did it the next year. And then the money ran out, so for 8 more years I raised the money to keep it going and took a week off each summer to participate.

I passed off the scholarship program after 10 years, 1000+ miles, and 120 kids - kids that had never done anything like that, but might find themselves studying science or sharing the outdoors with other because of it! The trip is coming up in a week, and while I’ll only join them for a day or two to catch up, I’d like to help raise money for the Georgia River Network, who puts on the event, and Camp Horizon, this year’s scholarship participants.

Please consider helping me by donating here: https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/joey-giunta/paddle-georgia-canoeathon-2019

(I’ll even take you paddling sometime as a thank you!)

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2nd Grade's future is so bright...

They have to BUILD shade! For the playground that is! Students have been studying the seasons, our sun, the moon and the stars. They figured out that the sun comes from the southeast during recess, and they designed shade covers for a place of respite.

Wiggins:

Waters:

Toomey:

Teuchert:

Smith:

Cervi:

Baer:

Meatless Mondays!

Not a typical post from me, but this topic came up in 5th grade today as we were hiking on the nature trail. Today I had a veggie sandwich for lunch - my Meatless Monday. I’m just trying baby steps towards reducing my impact on the environment and I encourage your family to try it too!

You're a sunflower....

First grade study the basic needs of plants by planting sunflowers seeds and watching them grow! Every few days the used cubes to measure how tall they were getting! Now that the project is over, some of the plants have been moved to the garden! Day 1 is on the left hand side of the carousel, and Day 22 (the last day) is all the way to the right!

May the force be with you.

Kindergarten is completing a project-based lesson from PLTW where three friends must move a load of rocks from one side of the yard to another in order to build a swing-set there. We studied pushes and pulls, as well as examined Mr. Giunta’s rock collection, and designed/built/tested/evaluated model rock movers. This was our first collaborative engineering challenge in the Science Lab, and the kids did great!

Bower:

Garrett:

Gillespie:

Smith:

Tommasello:

Wall:

Rooted in engineering.

First Grade students have been studying basic needs of plants (sunlight, air, water, nutrients (soil)) using an Engineering Is Elementary lesson, “A Gift from Fadel”. Each student designed and built a package to transport a plant (or seeds in soil) safely to be gifted to someone of their choice. Check out the results below!

East:

Fernandes:

Foote:

McElwain:

Moffett:

Paine:

International Schoolhouse of Pancakes

The Tritt Tiger Foundation purchased TWO PancakeBots this year to help our students learn about 3D printing. Fifth grade was excited to be the guinea pigs for Chef Giunta and Chef Pascual!

Students studied liver cells and onion cells with Mr. Giunta using microscopes, learned the PancakeBot Painter software with Mrs. Pascual and drew their cells, cooked them up in the Science Lab, and labeled pictures of their cells in the Technology Lab. Below is a time-lapse of a plant cell, and at the bottom is the explanation of an animal cell!