Classroom News
Kindergarten - During our money unit, kindergarten students had the opportunity to earn money, later to be spent at our "Kindergarten Market." They earned money by; trying their best, following classroom expectations, showing or doing a random act of kindness and exhibiting exemplary behavior. Eighth grade students were there to assist and be store keepers. All items at our "Kindergarten Market" were donated by our parents.
4th Grade - American history was brought to life by a visit by Abe Lincoln, complete with a stovepipe hat. The students enjoyed asking Abe questions and hearing about his life and presidency.
6th Grade - Pi day was celebrated with learning activities and pie! Last week, sixth grade used Oreos to learn about plate tectonics boundaries!
7th/8th Grades - Seventh and eighth graders went on a field trip to the Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum. At the Denver Art Museum students were lucky to see the only US exhibition of Edgar Degas: A Passion for Perfection. At the Clyfford Still Museum students participated in lessons using historical contexts to analyze and understand art. Seventh graders focused on the Great Depression as a way to explore art, eighth graders focused on World War II and Abstract Expressionism. A few days later instructors from the Clyfford Still Museum came to RMAE to lead a post-visit workshop allowing students an opportunity to express current issues through art. The Coordinator of Education at the Clyfford Still Museum complimented our students, "Both your groups were just wonderful on Tuesday, and our gallery teachers were so impressed by their engagement and insightful comments in the short time we had."
Middle School - Preparing for Science Innovation Day
Friday, May 18th will be the RMAE 8th Annual Science Innovation Day (SID). Each year the event kicks off with an opening activity to get the creative juices flowing. This week (Tuesday, March 13th) we hosted our 2018 SID kickoff event. Middle school students were divided into six teams based on their respective grade levels. Each team was given a box of materials to work with. They had no prior knowledge of the challenge that was lurking in their midst. The topic of the 2018 Challenge was the Rube Goldberg Machine. They viewed a 2-minute video of a world-renowned Honda Accord commercial.
The original 2003 Honda Accord two-minute-long video was the result of four months of preparation and 70 takes before they were able to capture all of the multiple steps in sequence without interruption. The RMAE Middle School Students had twenty minutes to design, construct, test, redesign, retest, etc. Then it was show time!
The challenge for this year was to assemble the materials in as many consecutive steps as possible, such that (once set in motion, when all of the various steps were executed in turn) the final step was to raise the orange survey flag at the end of the sequence. One 8th-grade team managed to do just that!
The Middle School students will devote one day per week during their 4th Quarter Electives class to pursue a Science Innovation Challenge of their Choice, selected from a menu of seven possible innovative design challenges.
Students will keep a project journal that will include entries every time they work on their project, edits and modifications made, test results (data), and observations. They will also create scale drawings of their designs, provide weekly photo-documentation of their design and testing process, and create a placard that thoroughly explains at least one science concept that their project exhibits.
The results of their collective efforts will be showcased Friday, May 18, 2018. Parents and visitors are welcome to join in the fun and learning at the Science Innovation Day event.