A Great End to 2016

A lot of great things are going on at DATA...

In December we took all the 6th grade DATA students to Pepperdine for a campus tour and show
https://www.pepperdine.edu/

Later that same day Alex Wulff, an outstanding teacher at DATA, was named "Ventura Educator of the Month"...

http://www.vcoe.org/Competitions/Teacher-of-the-Year/Past-Recipients

Our last class PBL of 2016 was "Gum Drop Towers". Students were given 20 toothpicks and 20 gumdrops with the challenge of seeing how high they could build it. We had some impressive designs with heights up to 16 inches. Well done Champions!

After building, students wrote reflection write ups and researched tower base designs.

Next up... school of choice night on January 11th.

Sailing Down the Nile River...

Using renewable wind power...

Champion students participated in a PBL focused on the benefits of renewable energy. The Ancient Egyptians were the first to harness wind energy to their advantage in trade with their neighbors along the Nile river. After reading, annotating, and writing about the history of sail energy in Ancient Egypt, students constructed their own sail boats using the following set of materials:
one foot of tape, seven straws, and one large note card

From those materials students created, tested, modified, and raced their boats along our "Nile River".
Many students were successful in sailing 'The Nile" quickly.








Our next step was to write a post card to the Mayor and City Council of Ventura persuading them to invest more in renewable energy for the benefit of future Venturans in years to come.




Our last step was writing a reflection of what they learned during the PBL in their on-line electronic portfolio. The reflection included screen clipping pictures of their sail boat and post card.



Awesome Job Future Champion World Leaders!