Blanchard Answers the Ice Bucket Challenge

The Principal at the Douglas Elementary School in Acton challenged Mr. Labb and the Blanchard Community to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge to bring awareness of the disease ALS to the public.  Mr. Labb and the Blanchard community answered that challenge with commitment, and creativity!  The entire student body and staff gathered on the playground at 1:30 this afternoon.  Students brought their water bottles or cups of water (some provided by their classroom teachers).  However, the staff did not need to bring water bottles.  Fire Chief White and his staff drove over on their firetruck and readied the hoses....to douse any willing staff member.  And there were quite a few who were willing to endure a soaking.  It was a fun 15 minutes for all of us and a reminder to be grateful for our own health and mindful of the challenges of others.  As soon as the videos are edited, we will post those as well.

Marine Biology in KIndergarten

The PTF has once again sponsored the Marine Biologist's visit in Kindergarten.

Both classrooms were able take part of Ellen Goethal's knowledgeable presentation and hands on opportunities to experience ocean life, both living and non-living.

Sixth Grade Students Must Scale and Strengthen their Ambitions

First, Mr. Dimen requires his sixth grade students to define the problem and then plan and design a solution to that problem.  This week, his students are creating paper and pasta bridges.  This is a mini-STEM project in which students apply the engineering process, learn to manage constraints and model solutions. The engineers have paired up and have named their firm. Each firm has been given $5000 virtual dollars to buy materials - fettuccine, vermicelli, linguini, or spaghetti. Each type of pasta has a different tensile strength, thus the engineers have to consider both material and cost (the wider and denser fettuccine is $500 a piece, for example) when designing their bridge. The engineers will test the bridges on Friday and see which structure will hold the greatest load before collapsing. However, the "winner" of the project is the structure with the lowest Efficiency Ratio of cost to load, that is the lower the  cost, the higher the load, the better the structure!