Kindergartners are closing out their first year at STEM creating miniature dog houses for their friend Bob's dog Bo.  Bo has different needs than the plants they just designed packages for, so they had to take different factors into consideration.  Dogs need a way to get in and out of their house, a place for food and water, a comfortable place to sleep, and a roof to keep out precipitation and sunlight in hot weather.  Awesome work Kindergartners!

After lots of hard work, making sure their plant packages gave the seeds space and access to water and light, we had success!  Here are some examples of some plant packages that allowed the plants to continue growing during Jack's move.  Way to go Kindergarten!

Check out all these unique plant packages for Jack!  Each one of them met the criteria for the packages that he so desperately needs for his plants.  They have space for the plant, can hold water and soil, and let light in so the plant can grow.  They even included a handle for easy carrying during his move!

Kindergartners have  began designing their plant packages according to the needs of a plant.  They must allow sunlight to enter in, withstand water, and be able to actually hold the plant and the soil it grows in.  Since Jack is moving with his plants, he also requested a handle, so moving all his plants won't be such a daunting task!  Awesome work Kindergarten!

Kindergartners are about to design their plant packages for their "friend" Jack!  Jack is moving to a new house and has lots of plants that he wants to transport safely.  In order to design the best possible package to send the plants in, students needed to figure out the best conditions for his plants.  This way they can continue to grow and thrive in the package as they are shipped to his new house.

Students set up four different experiments.

• Location 1--The Windows
  
• Location 2--The Classroom
  
• Location 3--The Closet
  
• Location 4--The Fridge
  

After waiting for a week, students discovered that not ONE set of seeds grew at all.  Many of them grew mold, too.  What did we conclude?

• The windows were too bright and warm for our seeds to grow.
  
• The classroom wasn't bright enough and was too warm, too, as over the weekend there is no air conditioning in the classroom.
  
• The closet was too dark and warm.
  
• The fridge was too cold and dark.
  

Our next steps...to consider how we can create more ideal conditions for our seeds to grow--not too hot or cold, not too much light or not enough, with just the right amount of water!

As Kindergartners practice their observation skills, they are seeing how living things grow.  Using the same beans they made observations of while dry, they moistened some beans to see what would happen.  And what did happen?

"They got longer!"
"They got wider!"
"They're still white!"
"They're not smooth anymore!"

Students are starting to make predictions as to what will happen with their beans, which will allow them to design investigations that will help determine the most ideal conditions for a plant to grow.  If they are going to help their friend Jack design a container to move all his plants, it's important that students know exactly what the plants will need in order to continue to grow and thrive!

Kindergartners have drawn conclusions from all their seed observations.  Seeds can be different sizes, shapes, and colors.  Each of their differences can have an effect on how the plant grows.  They had a chance to look at one specific seed--one that they will eventually design a container for.  The seeds they are looking at are lima bean seeds.  We're collecting data on them to compare how even seeds of the same type can be different!

To start our unit on the Earth and Human Activity, our focus will be on plants.  Plants are living things that grow and change, make their own food, and respond to their environment.  In order to solve an engineering design challenge about plants, it's important we know all about them!  So Kindergartners are starting with the very beginning of a plant, learning exactly what a seed is.  Students are looking at many types of seeds and identifying all the unique characteristics they may have!