Beyond...ISS Preparation

 OH MY GOODNESS!! This time of the year is always so busy, but this year is a little bit more hectic than previous years. The students and staff are looking forward to the holidays and a much needed break. Before we can enjoy our break we have to start thinking and preparing for the first two months of 2018....The Briarhill Downlink, The Lone Star Challenge, PTA Scholastic Book Fair, #Briarhill24HRWorldTour, and Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest.
 
Briarhill ISS Downlink t-shirts will go on sale January 8. The cost of the shirt is $7.00. I love the t-shirt design.

For the past couple of weeks students have been asking me for Student Ambassador applications. Student Ambassadors will be responsible for greeting and hosting our downlink VIPS. Applications will be made available starting Monday, December 18. It makes me smile to see students excited about something.

Mrs. Wiersema's Bulldog Bytes students have been documenting the happenings around the school. A couple of the BB students are taking pictures and making a video that will be shown during the downlink. One of the students, Ryan N., is creating the music for the video in GarageBand. I got to hear a snip it and it sounds FANTASTIC. He stopped by the library earlier today to write a post about how he creates his own music. Click here to access the document.

Mrs. Green's Mars Habitation Creation students have submitted their creations. We are crossing our fingers that we will hear something positive in the spring.

The Lone Star Challenge will kick off January 22. Students are challenged to read 4 books from the Texas Lone Star Reading List. Students who complete the challenge will qualify for a field trip in May. The field trip destination will be announced the beginning of April.

Mr. Bleemel and I are starting to plan  this year's world tour. We will "depart" at 4:00pm CST on May 9 and will "return" at 4:00pm CST on May 10. Mark you calendars for Friday, January 19. That is when we will have our information meeting and you can pick up your application after the meeting. We have started contacting people and already have a commitment from a business in Scotland. I am confident that we will have a full schedule by the middle of January. 

Not only are we busy getting ready for the downlink with the ISS but Mrs. Mickle just found out that she is Samsung's Solve for Tomorrow contest winner for the state of Texas. YAHOO!! Samsung is sending a technology package worth $25,000 to Briarhill.  The next step in the contest is for the students to develop a reusable, smart container system. Mrs. Mickle had her initial meeting this morning and approximately 20  students have shown an interest in helping with this project. Students will be working in either a Marketing, Tech Programming,  Design, or Video groups. These students will have about 6 weeks to create a prototype and a video. The deadline for submitting the video is February 13. I will have students periodically post their progress.

As you can see the January and February are going to be CRAZY, but fun.
Mrs. Weesner
      

STEM Club Paper Airplane Launcher

 In STEM club we made paper airplane launchers and it was so much fun to see what would work and what did not work. First we came up with a plan of what we should do. Then we decided to launch it off this wooden block using  nails, a wooden block, a rubber band, paper, and a hammer. We tried to nail three nails into the block in a triangle formation with one nail angled up so we can shoot it sort of higher so it wouldn't fall as quickly. We used the rubber band to force it up in the air. It didn't work, sadly. Then we tried all types of formations with the nails and we tried other types of paper but that idea didn't work. We all were really frustrated. We decided to split our bigger group into two smaller groups to try more ideas at once, but we still didn't think of anything that worked. After all of those ideas, we decided to come back together as one big group. We finally decided to look up ideas on Safari for paper airplane launchers, a bunch of ideas came up, but we used one of the ideas, but put our own little twist on it. I finally thought this might be the idea that works.We put two tables together with a little space between them, and we cut the rubber band in half. Then we tied each end to a  paper clip and taped the paper clips to the two tables tight enough that it would bounce back to its original starting place once you let go of it. We taped a hook shape paper clip to the end of the paper airplane. We put the hook paper clip around the rubber band then pulled the airplane back on the rubber band. Then we let it go and it flew across the room.We were so glad to see that it worked. We played with it for the rest of the time. Sadly we had to take it down but it was fun while we had it. I love STEM club and I can't wait for next time. I suggest to everyone to try STEM club because it is awesome. - 6th grade STEM Club Member