Weather Alert: Robots, Research and a Tornado Storm into SK!

If SKers came home this week talking about a giant storm in the Kovler Family Library, don’t worry—everyone is safe! Here’s a peek into the excitement buzzing around the ILIS Department’s latest project: The SK Weather Center. The SK Weather Center is part of a months-long project designed to turn our SK students into researchers, coders, makers and enthusiastic meteorologists.

The main bulletin board in the Story Studio has been converted into a giant Weather Display, and every few weeks, SKers learn about a new natural phenomenon. To display their learning about thunderstorms and tornadoes, students used a coding app called ScratchJr to apply computational thinking and coded a multi-page thunderstorm story. They used trigger blocks (like the Green Flag) to initiate movement, loops to create flashing lightning effects and sound blocks for thunder. The project culminated in a complex scene change involving a tornado they programmed to sweep across the screen.

Our Weather Center is helping SKers develop research skills by mixing nonfiction and fiction books and using digital databases to gather information. They are working on tech literacy by coding robots and creating stories on ScratchJr, exploring 3D objects with Merge Cubes and learning how to share ideas and build solutions together.

We just wrapped up our study of tornadoes, which culminated in the main event: Operation Safe Robot! The Senior Kindergartners put their coding caps on for a high-stakes challenge. After learning about tornadoes, they were tasked with a mission: program their robots to navigate a path to safety. The obstacle? A live tornado (or rather, Ms. Coleman dressed in a fabulous tornado costume)! The students did an incredible job using Blockly code to steer their robots away from the "storm" and into the safety zone. It was a perfect blend of giggles, excitement and serious problem-solving.

Stay tuned for the next forecast and click here for photos!