These last two weeks in Upper El have been a lot of fun working on our final engineering project and getting ready for the end of our school year.
Students were hard at work to get their machines up and running so they could generate some electricity using our small generators. It's been hard, too. There have been lots of challenges faced with this project. Lots of setbacks and also lots of triumphs!
As we neared testing day, we reminded ourselves that we would walk away learning from all our projects. What worked? What didn't? Why? I always like to reflect with students about this during our process and after we are finished. It's important to see that we can always learn something even when things don't work the way we want.
And then, it was test day!
I love this part. It's so much fun and, again, even when things go wrong, we find reasons to laugh and learn. We had so many different types of projects–– different starting energies that students chose––which made the testing a lot of fun. We had our gravitational energy students drop weights off the porch to spin their generators. We had elastic energy, twisting rubber bands and then letting them unwind. We had wind and water turbines. And we even had some chemical energy at play and thermal energy as well.
Our end of the year is always special. We're filled with the emotions that come with the coming changes. There are nerves and excitement. Yet, at DGS, I think our students get to really appreciate the process and the journey from all our projects to life in general, and these times of change and transition tend to flow so well. For all our students, the journey continues. Some to Middle School. Some to remain in Upper El but with an added sense of leadership to help guide those coming up.
Everyone is ready for their next step and I couldn't be more proud of each student's individual growth this year. Onward and upward!
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