GIRLSTART

Tonight at our Math & Science Night, you may want to check out the "Girlstart" table in the cafeteria.  This is an Austin-based organization that strives to encourage and empower girls in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Their activity will be for all of the kids!   They have some programs, resources, camps, etc. listed on their http://www.girlstart.org/ .  

Biblionasium

Biblionasium.com is a website and app that can be used for kids to connect with friends, parents and teachers in order to share and recommend their favorite books. They can setup virtual bookshelves, catalog books, track their reading minutes and write book reviews.  It's like a Goodreads for children. Grades 3-5 have been introduced to the site by our librarian, Ms. Jones, registered as students, and most have already changed their avatar and started their virtual bookshelf.  Please feel free to register as a parent or teacher as a way to connect with your student and make reading an everyday conversation.    

Future City, Purple Sage Students Envision Innovate for Competition

The Round Rock Media Services just announced this on the Round Rock Webpage.  I want to make sure our Purple Sage community sees it too.

A self-sustaining city in the clouds is just one of the ideas Purple Sage Elementary School fifth-graders have for a future city, a project created for a worldwide Cisco System Inc. innovation competition.

The 11 teams at Purple Sage are the only students in Texas participating in the competition, and they’re putting no limits on imagination for the projects. The semester-long assignment tasks students to envision a future city that would run on alternative energy.

“This project utilizes technology, teamwork and all of our academic subjects like social studies, reading, writing and math,” said Jacqueline Garcia, fifth-grade teacher. “It’s an ideal project for the students to work on at this grade level. It integrates perfectly with our curriculum.”

The students must map out their city, think of new technologies and eventually build a 3-D model, which will be judged in April. The classes have been getting ideas for their cities by looking at innovative technology in Central Texas and around the world.

“This is a real-world opportunity for the kids to see not only how our community is working, but how other communities are working as well,” said Jacqueline Garcia, Purple Sage fifth-grade teacher. “I think they feel like they have given back to the community because they’re bringing their ideas to life.”

One of the fifth-grade teams envisioned their city in the clouds during the year 3050. The team planned for trees and gardens to produce oxygen, water pipes from the cloud to the ocean to pump up water, and a pool of water that produces lightning to generate energy. Windmills and solar panels were also planned throughout the community to produce extra energy.

“You get to use your imagination more because it’s basically like you’re building your own city with your friends,” said Malichi, Purple Sage fifth-grader. “We can see what we’ll be able to do in our lives.”

As part of the program, Cisco System Inc.  employees visit the school twice a month to facilitate the project and will be the individuals judging the projects. The winner of the Future City competition will visit a Cisco System Inc.  office and present their city via video conference to fellow students across the world.

Biographies with a Technology Twist

The 2nd graders om Mrs. Santineau's class did research on historical figures using the Biographies section of the PebbleGo site.  Then, they used their data to complete an assigned timeline template in their Google Drive account using www.teach-nology.com, the big timeline in their web tools.

The students loved it!!