Success at the State Technology Fair in Decatur!

On April 25th, Evans Elementary took five students to the ACTE State Technology Competition in Decatur. They all did a phenomenal job representing themselves and Evans as technology team members. Emilie Adams won first place for her magazine, Truly Emilie. Kris Kirby, Ben Thompson and Tristan Golden received an honorable mention for their video production, The Dental Show. Way to go, guys!

What came first? The Chicken or the Egg?

Room 12 will hopefully have 12 baby chicks running around in roughly 21 days.  So far, they are doing great. Below you will find some pictures of our progress. More will be coming soon... 

In the picture above you see the incubator where the eggs are located. The incubator mimics the job of the hen who sits on her eggs until they hatch. The incubator is set at a constant temperature of 99.5 degrees throughout the incubation process. The eggs were placed on April 3rd and are expected to hatch on April 24th. (21 days) Also in this picture you will see a bottle of Germ-x. It is very important that while handling the eggs, our hands are VERY clean with minimal bacteria. Eggs are very porous and contract bacteria from our hands. 

Day 5 

In this picture, the egg is being candled. We candle the eggs to check development and fertility. In this picture you can see the embryo forming (it looks like a spider). On the fifth day of development, the reproductive organs start forming. In a few days, we might begin seeing the embryos move! So cool! 

GATE goes to Kappler

On March 20th, the 5th grade GATE students went on a field trip to tour Kappler in Guntersville. Kappler is a company that designs and produces protective garments for companies around the world. While touring the facility and research/development lab, students talked with and learned from professionals from many careers fields: a research scientist with a background in cell and molecular biology, a chemical engineer, a mechanical engineer with an aerospace background, a project development engineer and a industrial engineer. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Kappler and are so thankful they welcomed us! 

NorthEast Regional Tech Fair - March 13, 2015

The Evans Elementary Technology Team competed in the NorthEast Regional Technology Competition at the Agri-Business Center in Rainsville on Friday, March 13, 2015. The EES technology team has 21 members in 5th and 6th grade. Fifteen projects were entered in five categories: General Applications, Video Production, Multimedia, Website Design and Computer Programming. Some projects were individual projects while some were created by teams of two or three.  All of our students did an outstanding job creating and presenting their projects. Evans Elementary brought home 7 medals winning 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. 1st and 2nd place will advance to the state competition on April 25th at Calhoun Community College in Decatur.

EES Winners

1st place- Video production- The Dental Show- Ben Thompson, Kris Kirby, Tristan Golden
1st place- Website- The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World- Ty Murphy
1st place- IT Test- Emilie Adams
2nd place- General Applications- Truly Emilie- Emilie Adams
2nd place- IT Test- Daniel Pall
3rd place- Multimedia- History of NASA-Trent Roberson
3rd place- General Applications- Softball- Kayla Harris

Evans Technology Team

Blackout Poetry, Africa and skyscrapers, oh my!

 Students use newspapers to create a blackout poem. Blackout poetry is a type of free verse poetry that focuses on rearranging words to create a different meaning. Everyone enjoyed putting their creative spin on each poem. They all did a wonderful job!

 Last week, we spent some time researching famous skyscrapers around the world. After each student completed their research, they depicted their skyscraper on black paper in order to create a skyline in our hallway. Did you know the tallest skyscraper in the world is located in Dubai and is called the Burj Khalifa. It stands 2,484 feet. Wow! Ask your student about the skyscraper they researched. :)

Last Thursday, some of our 5th grade GATE students had the opportunity to participate in a "Google Hangout/Youtube" with a research scientist from Africa. He taught us about the grasslands and savannas located in Kenya, Africa. He also taught us about eco-tourism and how it is important to the livelihood of their country. He shared with us that desertification is currently taking place in Africa and explained to us ways in which they are trying to reverse this process. After our chat, Dr. Sims came in to share about his trip to Africa this past summer. He talked to us about Maasai Warriors and their role in African. He also showed the students some Maasai Warrior weapons. He shared some Swahili (one of the languages spoken in Africa) with us as well. We learned so much about the African culture. 

2015 Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl Poster Contest Winners

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and the National Garden Clubs, Inc., gave our 5th grade GATE students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of wildlife prevention and basic environmental conservation principles through original drawings of Smokey Bear or Woodsy Owl. They all did a magnificent job! Below you will see pictures of our winners. Their posters will go on to participate in the state poster contest. 

 1st Place Winner

2nd Place Winner

3rd Place Winner

New Technology Fun!

   Our classroom is now equipped with a new doorbell thanks to littleBits and a little help from our 5th grade GATE students. Operation Doorbell is now complete and in working order. These kiddos have enjoyed this so much. We even have our own doorbell "password". It is top secret! :) 

We have adopted some new technology into our classroom. Meet Ollie, our new "class pet". Ollie can do all kinds of neat things. We control Ollie with an app on our iPad. We hope you enjoy these fun videos! Dr. Sims and Officer Morgan were good sports! No one was injured during these demonstrations. :)

 Meet Osmo. Osmo is also controlled with our iPad. Osmo is a gaming system that allows our students to play 3 hands-on games. These games include pattern building with tangrams (Tangram), problem solving with drawing instruments (Newton) and vocabulary and word building with letter tiles (Words). In the picture below, students are playing Newton, the problem solving game.