Although the students had to brave the downpour rain at the end of the day (again), there was a buzz and excitement in the air from the fun they had!
Red/Blue Groups:
The red and blue groups were in a biology lab in our beautiful new Don and Cathy Jacobs Science Building with Brittany Rice, a graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences doctorate program in the College of Medicine. They were able to use state of the art lab equipment, wear lab coats, goggles, gloves, etc. as a real laboratory scientist would (this included some lab safety lessons as well 🙂 ). They made models of DNA and then did a simple DNA extraction themselves to look at their own DNA. They were very fascinated! Then they learned about bacteria and germs and how they grow and where they’re located. They did a bacteria activity with their hands…there was some extra handwashing that went on the rest of the day after they realized the germs on their hands 🙂 In robotics, they started the Green City Challenges. There were some initial frustrations as it’s a little bit different putting the programming together than with the football field and mazes. But they persevered and did awesome!
Yellow/Green Groups
It was their turn to be with Dr. Jennifer Eli, an alumnus of our program and current Associate Professor at University of Arizona, today! She loves to talk to the students about mathematical modeling and what tools we can use to model mathematics and other things. Today they specifically talked about polyhedra and made one of their own using a 3D Pen. Then they get to get creative and build and create their own items…once again, they brought their “A” game for creativity! We loved seeing their personalities come out in their creations and then watching them wear them around proudly the rest of the day. In robotics they started the Space Challenge. Some were bummed they didn’t get to finish the football challenge, but they enjoyed starting to put their programming knowledge together to work on the space challenges.
In their words…
Red/Blue Groups
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- “I liked everything. (except having to leave)”
- “Of course! I just think DNA is super awesome, and I would love to have another lesson.”
- “People can clone other using DNA”
- “DNA is abreviation for Dyrynucleic acid (or soemthign like that).”
- “That we made a tripple axel out of candy which is our DNA lines”
- “I would like to learn more about this topic because it is a big part of our world.”
- “I liked being able to see what my DNA looked like in a visual form.”
- ”That there are 25,000 human genes.”
Yellow/Green Groups
- “I would like to learn more because of the difficulty and the fun of learning it.”
- “I learned that focus and hard work pay off.”
- “I liked that it was fun and we had freedom to be creative!”
- “I learned how to make polyhedrons with a 3-D pen.”
- “3D pens are not as easy as they look and that they have multiple buttons.”
- “I liked creating the 3D structures”
Conversation Starters…
Red/Blue Groups
- How did you extract your own DNA today? What did you observe about your DNA?
- What did you learn from the handwashing activity?
- What challenges did you start in the Green City Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today? What was the hardest part about programming today?
Yellow/Green Groups
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What can you use 3d pens for?
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Why is it important to build models of things?
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How did you build your polyhedra?
- What challenges did you start in the Space Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today? What was the hardest part about programming today?
Photo of the Day…
Click here to view the photos for today!
Photo Credit to UK College of Education PR Team