Designing an Insulated Cooler

Engineering Design Process: Building an Insulated Cooler

The Seventh Grade Science Class put their minds to work to design an insulated cooler that would keep an ice cube frozen for an entire class period. The students researched on the computer for what materials make good insulators and the materials were gathered.  Materials used for the insulated coolers included liquid insulation, Crisco, Styrofoam packing peanuts, household insulation, sweatshirt material, and Styrofoam panels.  They designed, built, tested, and evaluated their coolers.  The results were:

Insulation Material

% of Ice Cube Remaining Frozen

Liquid Insulation w/ icepack

95%

Household Insulation

90%

Styrofoam Panel

67.5%

Styrofoam Panel

61%

Styrofoam Panel

55%

Crisco (chilled)

47%

Styrofoam Panel

19%

Styrofoam Packing Peanuts

0%

Sweatshirt Material

0%

Ciara thought the Crisco kept the ice cube colder than she thought it would while others were disappointed with the effectiveness of the Styrofoam.

Scholarships

Just a note to remind parents that it is NOT the school’s or counselor’s job to fill out or in many cases to obtain scholarship applications. It should primarily be the responsibility of the student although I am realistic and know that it is usually Mom that does the majority of the work on scholarship applications. All scholarship information that crosses my desk will be posted outside room 306 (the math room) on the third floor. With that said all of the seniors in my classes have been told about a very, very good scholarship opportunity for Nebraskans in rural counties. It is the Hagan Scholarship, this year is the first year that it has been offered in Nebraska, It potentially pays everything for a four year college education! The numbers are limited and the restrictions are pretty high but may be worth the effort. September 1st was the first day that it could be started, everything is on line at www.hsfmo.org. Get on line, check your eligibility, 16 scholarships will be awarded in Nebraska and we will not be competing against Omaha and Lincoln as they are not in rural counties. The deadline is Nov 15th. If you have questions contact Ed Planansky or Kim Marx at the High School. Keep checking or have your student check for new scholarships. You Must Apply to get any scholarship.

Marketing Class Constructs Short Survey

The Marketing Class has constructed a short survey on haircut preferences.  It is a simple ten questions asking high school students about where or how they take care of their hair. The questions should only take five minutes or less. Thank you high school English teachers for letting students take part in our survey during class. Thanks students for taking part, as we greatly appreciate your participation.  Please complete the survey by the end of school on TUESDAY, SEPT. 18.

Click this link to take the survey and submit your responses.

Guitar Class is a Hit

Mrs. Varvel’s new guitar class is a hit with students. Eleven guitarists attended class this morning! Class meets each Wednesday from 7:10 am to 7:50 am. Talk to Mrs. Varvel if you are interested in joining them!

Back Row L-R: Tanna Badje, Kobe Encinia, Drew Letcher, Trent Reed, (Not Pictured: Gabe Varvel)
Front Row L-R: Jaiden Anderson, Joce Varvel, Brittany Ferguson, Cierra Ryan, Baden Planansky, Jace Langford

National Arts in Education Week

This week is visual arts in education week. The visual arts are so much more than what you see.

Did you know?

  • Most children and youth spend 10 hours per day in front of screens composed of pictures and words.
  • 1.25 million Americans currently work in the visual arts. Jobs for artists and designers are predicted to increase by 43% by 2016.

10 lessons the arts teach:

  • The arts teach children to make good judgements about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgement rather than rules that prevail.
  • The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
  • The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
  • The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
  • The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
  • The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.
  • The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
  • The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
  • The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
  • The arts’ inclusion in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

PreK News: September 10, 2012

Mrs. Heiting’s Classroom Newsletter

News for 9/10-9/13

I apologize for not getting a newsletter out last week!  With the Labor Day weekend and the short school week, time got away from me!

Last week our focus was on community helpers in the spirit of Labor Day.  We will again touch on jobs in our community later in the year as 3 days really didn’t do the topic justice!  We focused on helpers in our school, police officers, and fire fighters.

Thank you all for your cooperation with transitioning your child into the classroom in the morning!  We seem to have worked out all the kinks and everyone for the most part is starting their day off in a positive way!

Overall last week was a great week and we are looking forward to another awesome week of Preschool!

Show and Tell

I know a lot of the students have been asking about show-and-tell.  This week will be our first week to kick off show-and-tell!  Wednesdays will be our show-and-tell days.

Please encourage your child to bring something related to our theme for the week.  For example, this week we are studying shapes.  Specifically, circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.  Having them choose something from home that fits one of these will not only tie into our theme but reinforce concepts every week!

Please make sure it can fit inside their backpack and that it is not valuable.  If it’s a toy, we will just show the class, not actually play with it.  I don’t want to be responsible for any damage J

We are looking forward to our sharing time on Wednesdays!

Theme This Week

Our theme this week is shapes!  We will be studying circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles as well as where we find them in every day life!

Skills We Are Working On

A large portion of any early childhood program is focused on learning and improving social skills.  We will continue to focus on the following and I encourage you to reinforce at home as well…

  • Table manners (please & thank you, excuse me, being respectful of others’ space)
  •  Sharing (includes sharing toys as well as space and time)

Feel Free to Contact Me

I now have my email up and running.  Feel free to contact me any time.  I know questions often come up in the evening.  Please don’t hesitate to ask!

PreK Newsletter in PDF

Guitar Class Begins

Mrs. Varvel is beginning an acoustic and electric guitar class on Wednesday mornings from 7:15-7:50. If you are interested in participating you will need to bring a:

  • Guitar
  • “Essential Elements” guitar method book

Books can be purchased at Marbow Music in Chadron, Haggerty’s Music store in Rapid or can be ordered off the internet. This class is open to 4thgrade through high school students and will be focusing on beginning guitar skills.  Class begins Wednesday, September 12th! Hope to see you there!

Dream Room Architects

Students in ITE 7 were given specific criteria and constraints for designing and constructing their own 3-D room in a scale model. Practical problem solving comes into play through the use of available space, material, expense and some construction code enforcement.

Student’s creative juices flowed as they were given the chance to build their virtual room. Accessories were the highlight, as they designed furniture from available materials and brought detail and personal touches that ranged from tiny clothes on hangers to huge flat screen TV’s displaying their favorite shows.

Critical thinking is the glue between abstract learning and practical life. Give your kids a problem and a plan and they might surprise you with the solution of what they are capable of doing when they apply themselves.

Purpose of the assigment:

To study and apply the engineering design process.

  •  Define the problem
  • Gather information
  • Develop a solution
  • Model the solution
  • Test and evaluate the solution
  • Refine the solution
  • Communicate your ideas
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