Mini Culminations have begun!

After a great start with our bi-weekly science labs, we're about ready to bring all the pieces together with a large, creative problem solving task - our first Mini Culmination! The purpose of mini-culminations is synthesize the skills we practiced in labs and combine that with collaborative problem solving and a focus on team communication. In this mini culmination, students will be focusing on several robotics systems as well as manipulating Newton's 3rd law. This will involve delivering robot pieces to different simulated stations on Earth, Mars and Phobos - one of Mars' moons. Today Bert and MM introduced the challenge to 8th grade and the teams of 8-9 students met for the first time to plan their approach. It should be noted that we are focusing on group process as much as the success of individual robots and systems the girls are creating. To that end, during the mini culmination students will be observed to see how effectively they are working with one another and we will undertake a debriefing session afterwards to consider ways to improve communication. This is a fun and very challenging task. Be sure to ask your daughters about it!