Shutter Fold for Famous Americans

foldable fam amShown here is a shutter foldable used for review on Famous Americans. Students are given oversized paper with the names already printed on the outside and a picture of the famous person on the inside. Students were asked to draw pictures to show what they know about each person on the outside. On the inside, they sorted phrase cards that contained riddle-like clues.

Activity can be modified to met your students needs. This was done with a group of second graders and worked out very well. Parents were appreciative too, because they could use the information within the foldable for review.

Shown to the right is another example.
foldfornotebook fam am

Famous Americans Project

Virginia SOL’s 2.11, 3.11
Students from Mrs. Facer’s 4th grade class were assigned a project to create a Famous American out of materials found within the home.
Can you identify these Famous Americans?

What Most Schools Don’t Teach


Perhaps the most surprising part of the ed-tech video is that all of the innovative programmers interviewed—including Bill Gates and the engineers of Dropbox—say they got into programming when they were children and by taking introductory classes in computer science. (5:44 mins)

Spaghetti Team Towers

VCEC Conference – February 28th and March 1st, 2013
STEM Session – How Engineering Fits Into ALL Subject Areas

Challenge: Create the tallest freestanding structure that will hold a marshmallow. Your structure must remain standing for at least 3 seconds to be measured. You do not have to use all of the time given. You can have your structure be measured more than once if you make changes.

Design a Coin

VCEC Conference – February 28th and March 1st, 2013
STEM Session – How Engineering Fits Into ALL Subject Areas

Design Challenge: Examine coins front and back. Pick a Famous American and design a new coin around that person.