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All grade levels have been moving full STREAM ahead during our second quarter! Our two major focus areas were; stop motion movie creation and programming/coding in computer science. I have been very impressed with the students’ growth in working collaboratively with their peers! To begin the quarter, all students in grades 2 through 8 dove deep into the history of STEM in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They learned that we have a huge connection to the parade here in Akron, Ohio thanks to the Goodyear Company. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is known for their giant balloons. Each grade level was given a different aspect of the parade to research. Students then used the engineering and design process to create their own parade designs. 2nd graders used map skills and their understanding of magnetism to create their own versions of the giant parade balloons. 3rd and 4th graders designed parade float prototypes. 5th and 6th grade researched the clowns and costumes and created parade characters. Students used stop motion to bring their characters and costumes to life. 7th and 8th graders researched “balloonicles” which are part float and part vehicle. They then created their own balloonicle prototypes and showcased their prototypes in a stop motion movie. The second half of our quarter was focused on introducing programming and coding. All grade levels have participated in activities for “Hour of Code” and Computer Science Week, which is celebrated every December. The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify “code”, to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. Kindergarten through 4th grade students have been learning to code our new “BlueBot BeeBots.” They have participated in a variety of challenges and centers with the bots, that focus on problem solving skills. 5th through 8th grade participated in a variety of challenges to enhance their understanding of coding and coding skills. This included programs such as Lightbot Hour of Code, Swift Playgrounds, AppLab App creator,Koodable and ASCII text art coding. We will continue to use our coding and programming skills as we explore more through the use of robots like Dash, Sphero and Beebot in 3rd quarter.