Destination Imagination

Well, we are home from another busy weekend with the kids.
William's DI (Destination Imagination, SD DI site) team made it to the state competition this year, so we packed up and spent the weekend in Pierre. In addition to viewing many awesome DI presentations, we did a little shopping, a little eating (Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant in Pierre — they get 5★ for great food, service, and atmosphere, then Zestos for strawberry sherbet for dessert) and a little motorized site seeing including the Capitol building, and the Corn Palace in Mitchell. The drive there was windy, but uneventful, and the drive home quiet. All in all, a great weekend.

Jacquie's DI team competed in Tri-Valley, and DJ's team dissolved before competition. We are going to see about getting a "Rising Star" division of DI started because Isaiah wants to try it too. Rising stars is for students age 5-9 who want to participate in DI. Kids in Kindergarten through 3rd grade can also join an elementary level team. I coached an elementary team last year, and would again if my schedule allows.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with DI is a creative problem solving organization for youth and adults. The program is open to students from elementary through college. Teams of up to 7 members compete in challenges that require complex thinking, problem solving, teamwork and creativity. DI's  educational goals are:

• to foster creative and critical thinking
• to develop teamwork, collaboration and leadership skills
• to nurture research and inquiry skills involving both creative exploration and attention to detail.

Each team is compete's at a certain level, which is decided by the age of the oldest team member.

• Rising Stars: grades K-2 or 5–9 years old
• Elementary: grades K-5, or no student above 12
• Middle: grades 6-8, or no student above 15
• Secondary: high school, or no student above 19
• University: college age and armed forces with no younger students

Of cougars and extirpation

I was reading an article today about the Easter Cougar and how it has been declared "extinct" by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  While reading this article I came upon a new word: extirpation.

Once widely dispersed throughout the eastern United States, the mountain lion was all but wiped out by the turn of the last century. Cougars were killed in vast numbers, and states even held bounties. A nearly catastrophic decline in white-tailed deer — the main prey of mountain lions — also contributed to the species' extirpation.

What do you suppose extirpation means? The root word is "extirpate."

I also find it intruiguing that cougars have so many names for the same animal: puma, panther, mountain lion. According to the Guiness Book of World Records (2004), the American Cougar has more names for the same animal than any other -- more than forty!
How many other names for "cougar" can you find?

When You're Hot, You're Hot! When Your Not...

...go back inside!

I the course of two weeks we went from -20 F to 50 F here in southwest Minnesota! That got me and the kids thinking about temperatures. We often have "guess the temp" contests when we drive past the bank. which displays the temperature in both F and C. DJ's guess was a bit off for for F, but right on in C.

Then we wondered, "is there any temperature that is the same number in both measuring system.  That is today's challenge: Using only the formula for temp conversion, find the temperature that is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Here is the formula: F =  C x 9/5 + 32
Or the other way around: C = (F - 32) x 5/9

This will take some 'guess and check' but you can do whatever you put your mind to.

By the way, the Robotics Expo was awesome!

Nebraska Robotics Expo & First Lego League Championship

Nebraska Robotics Expo: First Lego League Championship and Jr. First Lego League Fair

on Saturday, February 19, 2011, Strategic Air and Space Museum, Ashland, NE

We will be attending this event at the SAC Museum! YEAH! Thanks to no school on Feb. 21, we will definitely attend!!!

The boys did LEGO Robotics in 4-H and had a very fun time programming and building the bots.

While at the SAC, we will be seeing: Anakin Skywalker's Podracer exhibit. 

More about First Lego League found here from Univ. of Nebraska and 4-H:

GEAR-Tech-21 is a geo-spatial and robotics 4-H program available to middle school-aged youth throughout the United States.  Using LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT^® robotics kits and handheld GPS devices, youth can experience science, engineering and technology career areas through camps, club programs and competitions.  Designed with the experiential learning model, all activities have a hands-on problem-solving focus.

GEAR-Tech-21 is an innovative curriculum that brings together robotics, GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Through this program, youth will:

• Build and program robots
• Operate a handheld GPS receiver
• Put your science, technology, engineering, and math skills to work
• Explore the outdoors
• Apply robotics, GPS, and GIS technologies to geo-tracking, navigation, and mapmaking
• Learn about the role of information technology in natural resources and precision agriculture
• Find out about careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics including robotics, GPS/GIS, natural resource management and agricultural technology
• Complete fun challenges and have the opportunity to compete in a virtual competition with other youth across the country.
• Prepare to compete in a FIRST LEGO League^®, GEAR-Tech-21 or local competition.

The program is designed to be very flexible for groups to adapt to various schedules, interests and other constraints.  Ideally, a youth would begin GEAR-Tech-21 programming with a one-week introductory camp followed by an academic year of regular club sessions including one or more competitions.  Advanced youth would repeat the process for the second year with an advanced camp and advanced club activities.  Because of the program's flexibility, the curriculum can be adapted for classroom, after school or community club formats.
A key component to GEAR-Tech-21 is adult volunteers.  Adult volunteers lead camps, club sessions and coach teams for competitions.  They may or may not have technical expertise prior to leading a GEAR-Tech-21 group.  In addition to online leader guides for each activity, leaders have face-to-face training, online training and online leader forums to access support.
As a part of 4-H, participants can access hundreds of other experiences through additional project areas, camps and more.  By contacting your local Extension office, you can learn about other opportunities in your area.

This page has the following tags:

• Club Information

The Super Bowl Puzzle Answer

After much discussion, and clarification (the question stated on offensive points) we have come to the conclusion that 5 is the highest score that an NFL team could NOT achieve playing offense. I am not certain that is all, but with the help of Matt, I believe this is the correct answer.

Thanks for joining the discussion.

The 'What's the Highest Score an NFL Team Could NOT Earn in the Super Bowl?' Puzzle

I am not nearly as interested in the Super Bowl as my kids.  One thing I do enjoy is trivia or number challenges. Here is a combination of the two: a football number challenge.

What is the HIGHEST score an NFL team could NOT in the Super Bowl while playing on offense (meaning no Safeties, which is a defensive score). Assume that there is NO TIME LIMIT to this game.
The only ways to score are:

• TOUCHDOWN
• FIELD GOAL
• 1-EXTRA-POINT CONVERSION (can only be earned after a touchdown)
• 2-EXTRA-POINT CONVERSION (can only be earned after a touchdown)

No Googling the answer, as I am certain someone has already worked it out. Instead, see how close you can get. I will be working on it as well, as I do not yet know the answer.

Post your answer in the COMMENTS, and I will keep them hidden for some time so everyone can try it out for themselves.

Educational Game Evaluation — Dolch Word

Site: http://www.dolchword.net/
Content Area: reading, Dolch 220 words
Level: preschool to third grade

Ease of use:
Skills Transfer:
Educational Value:

Advertising: Advertisement at top and bottom of page, above and below the game window, and on right column of each page, also on some of the links below the game links. Unobtrusive and links mostly of same content as website.
Violence/Mature Content: None
Other Notes:

IN PROGRESS... Check back later

Time will tell...

Isaiah, who is in Kindergarten, is learning to tell time. He seems to be doing well, but it has reminded me of teaching "time" when I was a Kindergarten teacher.

This may take same serious reminiscing, but what do you remember about learning to tell time?
How old were you? What grade were you in?
Did you use both analog clocks and digital clocks?
What challenges did you have?

Coincidentally, I am writing a unit for teaching kids to tell time. In my opinion, some textbook companies go about it backwards and end up skipping crucial steps.

What is your experience?
I will post more when I have my Time unit closer to completion.