By Beth David, Editor
Wood School students are wondering. They’re wondering about everything around them. And their wonderings have gotten them to work trying to figure out stuff.
Amy Hartley-Matteson, principal of the LL Wood elementary school in Fairhaven said that this year’s theme is “wonder.” Instead of a book report this summer, students were tasked with choosing a topic or question that they wonder about and learning more about it.
“Now throughout the school year we are encouraging students to wonder about topics that interest them, research, create and teach others what they have learned,” wrote Ms. Hartley-Matteson in an email. “This inquiry based approach to learning gets students engaged and excited about what they are learning because it’s interest driven.”
During a Genius Hour in Mrs. Vasconcelos’s first grade class, students were wondering about how horns grow on triceratops, how spikes grow on stegosaurus, does a T-rex eat anything except meat, and how long is a brachiosaurus’ neck!
Kennedy Allain wondered why the ocean is salty and learned that gases from volcanoes created some of the salt when the earth was young. Now, the minerals and salt from rocks and erosion from all the rivers that flow into it make the ocean salty.
Margaux Poyant and Olivia Faria wondered how microphones make their voices “way louder.” They are still in the process of figuring it out, but know the speakers and electricity have something to do with it.
“So microphones can be made with all kinds of things but that will still be a wonder to us until we find out the answer,” wrote the two third-graders. “And we will keep trying until we do.”
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