The Science Behind Everyday

For the past two weeks, we have enjoyed learning from a new set of classes! Most of us like to eat candy, but watch out for those cavities! Teacher Gordon, who is a dentist in real life, taught us the importance of maintaining clean and healthy teeth. We got to see what tooth decay looks like when we don’t brush and floss regularly. Hmm…not a pretty sight. “Brush twice a day, for at least 2 minutes, and floss once a day.” We will try our best to take care of our teeth Teacher Gordon! Now…how do we get from here to there? Teacher Cindy and teacher Victoria taught us about how maps give us important information about many things, and not just directions! For example, did you know that certain maps can show us what the weather is like in different parts of the country? And there are maps that can show us what parts of the entire world children are most able to read? Wow, maps can teach us so many things! Vroom!! Vrooom!! Turn on the ignition and get ready to go! How many of us have wondered just what goes on underneath the hood of a car? How does a car work so we can accelerate with just a turn of the key and a press of the gas pedal? Teacher Jackson, through a transparent model, demonstrated how the engine inside a car works and what each part is designed to do. Amazing! These lessons have taught us how important science is in our daily life. Next time, we will have better understanding of the way things work when we brush our teeth, look at a map, or ride in a car.

Fun at Lawrence Hall of Science!

 

ImpACT went to the Lawrence Hall of Science as our first field trip of the summer! Even before the cars stopped, the students were super excited. They eagerly looked for the Campanile and marveled at the number of seats in the UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium. While waiting for more cars to arrive, the students played on the giant whale and DNA structures. They enjoyed it so much that their Team Leads had to convince them to go into the Hall and also promise that they would return to the DNA structure later.

At the Animal Grossology exhibit, the students learned about the many textures, scents, and make up of animal parts, such as hairballs, slime, and even poop! Initially, the students were scandalized but their curiosity overcame their inhibitions. It brought the students great delight to share their newfound knowledge with their team leads. A couple of students generously shared with their Team Leads the difference between the smell of musk and urine. Ewww… Then, there was the maze. Though bigger and older, the Team Leads were not any wiser than their students in finding the exit out of the maze. Only through working together did the teams manage their way of the maze.

At lunch, the students ate against the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay and a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge. They discussed with their Team Leads their favorite thing so far. “The octopus slide! The climate sphere! The maze! Oh, the DNA model!” they shouted. Overall, the students’ enthusiasm and energy were contagious. We’re all eagerly looking forward to the next field trip and counting the days until then.

Welcoming New Friends Into the Upcoming Year of ImpACT

It was exciting to see brand new faces of students and staff joining us as we launched into a new term!  Along with Garfield and Franklin, we are excited to partner with Ruby Bridges Elementary School in Alameda this year. A total of over 90 second-graders registered, many of whom were with us for SummerFest about a month ago. Much of the excitement from SummerFest carried over to the first day of ImpACT, as we saw from the expressions on everyone’s faces.

We prepared for three new classes to kick off the first day. For the next three weeks, we will learn about the solar system, the human skeletal structure, and Haiku poems. In the class on solar systems, we began by watching a magnificent slideshow of the stars and planets in the galaxies. We learned one interesting fact about each of the nine planets (or rather, eight, since Pluto is no longer one). We ended by pasting all the planets to a large piece of construction paper in order of their location from the sun. In the class on the human skeletal system, we learned the different parts of the human bone structure like the cranium, femur, and patella by looking at a real human skeleton. In addition, we had a lot of fun watching a School House Rocks video that helped us remember the different parts.  And last, but not least, in the Haiku class, we learned the structure behind Haiku poems, such as the number of syllables in each line. We, then, collaborated as a class to come up with a poem before writing our own individual ones on pretty scrolls of paper.

The first day was packed with a lot of fun and we look forward to getting to know one another in the weeks ahead.

SummerFest Fun 2009 – Stay Strong!

After a late night of preparation on Friday, SummerFest started yesterday with 74 second graders from Ruby Bridges Elementary School in Alameda and Garfield and Franklin Elementary Schools in Oakland.  With over 160 volunteers ranging from drivers, general helpers, videographers, photographers to classroom teachers, team leads, we were ready to receive these precious kids.  There were lots of smiles and high fives all around as kids were brought to our North Loop building by our very own friendliest transportation team of volunteers.  We started the day with some breakfast getting to know one another by teams and then they heard about what is in store for them in the next three sessions of SummerFest along with the rules at ImpACT.

After that off they went to classes where they got to touch a cow eye ball in Biology, make their own ice cream in Chemistry, build their own soon-to-be-completed new Bay Bridge (a miniature version of course), etc.  After class time it was time to make some melodies and play games.  They watched a funny intro video to our Large Group lesson time given by Mr. Joshua who taught us that life is a like a jungle and we all need a compass to help us point to the right way and we need to BE STRONG, being firmed to do the right thing.  Our theme this year is “Adventure” as we want to teach them three key things as getting through life can be a daunting adventure; that is to STAY STRONG, STAY FOCUSED and STAY TOGETHER.

By the time lunch time came around and we went over the lesson by teams and were ready to say good bye, all the kids were warming up to us and many of them were excited to return on Monday.  Many kids were heard saying to one another how this is the best time they ever had, this is better then Chuck E. Cheese’s!

Can’t wait for day 2 on Monday!

Spotlight: UC Davis Aggies

Serving in ImpACT was not a hard decision to make; I have always liked kids and grew up taking care of my younger brother and cousins. However, I would not have thought that serving these young children in ImpACT would have such an effect as to be a cornerstone of growth for myself. Every Sunday I am reminded of the importance of having trust, especially when it is modeled by the way our girls trust us, their team leads. They show such attention to the things that we teach them. They take us seriously and learn from what we tell them, even when sometimes, I am not completely sure of what I am doing in a certain activity or the way that I am explaining something to them. I have noticed this growing trust with one of my girls. At first, she was one of our most quiet and reserved girls. She would only talk to one other girl in Chinese and not pay much attention to the activities. This distraction was because she had recently immigrated with her family from China. She was not very fluent in English, so she felt too insecure in participating and talking to the other girls and me. I understood how hard it was for her, so I had a hard time asking her over and over again to speak English. However, as time progressed I have seen her improve. She speaks English to all of us now, and I actually feel closer to her. Every time she arrives she greets me with a big hug. I find this so heartwarming and a bit funny, as we are about the same height but she is 11 years younger than I am. She understands the Joyland messages a lot better, and I know that she does seriously take in what she learns there. Part of this is shown in her drawings when she depicts values and characters that she is learning about. Seeing her growing together with the rest of the girls makes me glad to have taken part of the wonderful journey that is ImpACT.

–Diana