Top 10 Videos of this School Year

New Year's Resolution: Get back into the habit. So, I've planned out the week ahead and I'm looking forward to sharing some of the amazing work the 5th grade students have put together this fall. But first, here's a round up of some of our favorite videos that we've watched this fall. Some tie directly into the curriculum, others a little more abstractly, and some are just used as little rewards throughout the week. So, without further ado...

10: What Brought Us Together 2012
I put this on right before vacation and several students asked me to share it. Sorry about the delay guys.

9: Rube Goldbergs
So, I'm cheating a bit on this one but I can't help it. I can't imagine a better way to talk about potential and kinetic energy or simple machines than checking out some of these remarkable creations.

8: Zip Line Catapult 

This is one of those more abstract connections to energy but we like to have fun.

7: Sound Demonstrations
Let's hear it for our very own 5th graders who created these original demonstration videos to explain the concepts of sound. And as an added bonus, we'll even throw in A Skiltrex Christmas to illustrate how related light and sound are!

6: Landfilharmonic

I firmly believe that when we cover a concept, we need to look deeper than just curriculum. We need to examine how the concept affects everyday life. As we discussed sound energy, I was proud to watch this in awe along with you guys. (The second video is the full 15 minute version!)

5: Crushing Cans With Air
Unfortunately, we didn't take video in class (actually, hey, what are you guys up to tomorrow? Oh that's right, what ever I want you to be up to. Let's say we try this old experiment on for size once more? You got it!) Until we have our own, enjoy the ambassador of science: Steve Spangler.

4: Red Bull Stratos Mission
It just so happened that Felix Baumgartner made his historic leap as we were studying weather. No better way to look at atmosphere than from at the top of it, right?

3: Curiosity Touches Down
This is the greatest advancement of space travel in my lifetime. I can't imagine the possibilities that await you guys after seeing this. How could we talk about space science without watching this?

2: Watermelon

This might be my favorite science moment of my entire career. To represent how the kinetic energy from pulling one elastic can be stored as potential energy, we used a watermelon. Once we stored enough energy, ka-blam-o.

1: Feel Inside (and stuff like that)

I couldn't imagine a better way to start off the school year. Another abstract connection but the idea was to represent how the small, everyday observations we record in our writer's notebook can be used within our narrative writing. In this video for the charity Cure Kids, New Zealand rock duo Brett and Jermaine interview elementary school children and turn their responses into a song.