Students in Mr. Luke Kruse's eighth-grade social studies class are learning about the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the United States.
Factory Simulation Teaches Lesson on Industrial Revolution
Students in Mr. Luke Kruse’s eighth-grade social studies class are learning about the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the United States.
The classroom was turned into a factory simulation so students could have a hands-on experience learning about the concepts of mass production and interchangeable parts, and how industrialization and innovation transformed the northern economy in the mid-1800s.
Students worked together to produce rollerblades in their simulation.
Animal Pyramid Lab
Understanding the animal food pyramid may have gotten a little easier thanks, in part, to our favorite science consultant, Mr. Z. He recently visited second-grade classrooms to conduct a lab on the pyramid.
After watching a brief video on the animal food chain, students split into groups to create their own food pyramid.
Students were given three green trays (one small, one medium and one large) and several wooden blocks painted green, brown and red. Students then had to fill the trays with green blocks, stack the trays and then place brown blocks and a red block on top to create a pyramid effect.
The green blocks represented grass, the brown blocks represented mice and the one red block represented a hawk. The idea was for students to see how many levels of the pyramid are needed to support those things above it.
In this experiment, students discovered one hawk (red block at the top of the pyramid) needed 10 mice (brown blocks in the middle of the pyramid) to survive, and the 10 mice then needed 100 green plants (green blocks at the bottom of the pyramid) to stay alive.
Retirees Read to Elementary Students
K-4 students had some awesome visitors March 8. North Eastern Ohio Education Association’s retired teachers came to Jordak as part of the organization’s Read Across America project that encourages students to read.
Retired teacher Barb Catalano read “Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose” to Mrs. Hiller’s third-grade homeroom while Carol Dolgosh read “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” to Mrs. Dyer’s kindergarten class.
The books were donated to the school after they were read and our guests also left behind some certificates and tote bags for students.
Thanks for taking time to come read to our pups, we enjoyed having you.
Pancakes & Maple Syrup Teach Lesson on Solids, Liquids and Gasses
First-graders in Mrs. Kate Pike’s and Mrs. Darcy Horvath’s classes will likely never look at making pancakes the same again.
Recently, they got a special treat while learning about solids, liquids and gasses. Their lesson started with a brief video and explanation from Mr. Z on how real maple syrup is made, a staple here in Geauga County.
That was followed by Mrs. Pike making the classes pancakes, but while she made them, she demonstrated how the pancake mix was a solid, then when mixed with the ingredients it turned to a liquid, followed by the pancakes “bubbling” up from gas as they cooked on the griddle, and then finally the solid final product of a pancake.
Each student got a pancake with a sample of pure maple syrup and “fake” maple syrup. Students taste tested and at the end took a poll to see which syrup they liked better. Pure maple syrup won!
