Washington STEM Students Learn About Insects, Technology
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Do dragonflies have eyelashes? How many eyes do cicadas have? How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? Second-graders at Washington STEM Academy answered those questions and more Tuesday during the second annual “Second-Grade Life Cycle Night” in the school gym. According to teacher Derek Pike, second-graders picked either cicadas, butterflies or dragonflies to study. They learned about the insects’ life cycles, predators, habitats and body parts while meeting the second-grade state standards. Their assignment was to use different online apps or software to make their presentations. Technology the second-graders used included ComicBook!, Prezi, iMovie, Edge of Creation and Toontastic. “Tonight is like an expo. The students are teaching not only their insect, but also their technology,” Pike said. Students experimented on all the apps and software, but became “experts” on one. Throughout the school year, students will be able to use the technology they learned in the classroom. In studying the insects and technology over the past two months, classrooms also used devices like a wireless microscope so that all the students could see on their iPads what their teacher saw through the microscope. If the teacher used the wireless microscope to zoom in on a dragonfly, the students could see that a dragonfly does indeed have eyelashes. Pike said all three second-grade classrooms – his, Kara Mayer’s and Josh Wall’s – started studying the insects and technology about the second week of school in August. Once all three classrooms were done with the research and projects, the Life Cycle Night was scheduled. Parents also came in to help. In preparation for Tuesday’s Life Cycle Night, Washington students and their families were asked to collect cicada shells. There were 1,742 collected, Pike said, and those were just ones collected by Washington. Imagine how many cicada shells could be found if every student in Warsaw Community Schools looked for them, he suggested.
