WHAT A WEEK!

During the past 2 weeks we have been very lucky to have been visited nearly every day by Fireman Tim from the Streamwood Fire Department. Fire Lieutenant Tim McCoy is a regular visitor here at Glenbrook and has become a friend to all of us. Thank you Fireman Tim for teaching us how to be safe!

Fireman Tim teaches the kindergartners what to do if their clothes catch on fire. They "Stop, Drop, and Roll" to put the fire out.  They also learn how and when to dial 911.

Primary students also learn about the equipment that firemen use to put out fires and keep firemen safe. They learn not to be afraid when the firemen have all of this equipment on.

Students in second grade learn about the causes of fires. The students are anxious to share what they know with Fireman Tim.

 

 Fire prevention is a key to fire safety. Fireman Tim talks to the students about how fire extinguishers work and about other tips to prevent fires.

 The "Sparks Home Safety Checklist" helps students to identify areas in their home that might be areas of hazard as well as their own fire safety readiness.  We practice fire safety drills at school, so why not practice at home too?

Students in primary and intermediate grades were able to watch videos that showed what to do in the event of a fire in their homes.   These models are a safe way to help the students "see" what to do during a fire, rather than just "tell" them.

The 6th graders had a great job playing Jeopardy with Fireman Tim.  They love to compete, so it was a great way to engage them in fire safety while helping them to understand the importance of fire prevention at a much higher level than their younger peers.

Young Authors' Celebration

Thanks to the many young authors who shared their books at our Young Authors' Celebration on Friday. We had a great turnout of authors, parents, students and staff.  A special thanks to Mr. Whitmer who organized and ran the young authors program this year. We'll be announcing the winner very soon.  The winning author will be invited to attend the  state wide Young Author's Conference in Bloomington, Illinois in May. 

Discovery U-46 STEM EXPO

On Saturday 16 Glenbrook students participated in the U-46 Stem Exposition at South Elgin High School.  It was quite impressive to watch as the students not only displayed their projects but also shared the new knowledge that they acquired.  These young minds are really quite brilliant!!! Thank you Marc Hans and School District U-46 for encouraging us and for the opportunity to display our new found knowledge.

          

Catie and Hannah have found a way to help cooks "stop crying" while slicing onions! They collected research using mixtures of common kitchen products and lots of volunteers to see if they could find a safe way to cut down on the strong scent that produces tears when we cut into onions. 

Christian created a robot to find out how electricity works.  He learned all about communication and circuitry.  Christian admits the project became stressful at times, but learned a lot about stamina as he stuck with it. Next time he says he'll try a program such as "Mind storm" to help him. 

Kavin based his research project on Daniel Bernoulli's work with air speed and pressure. Kavin demonstrated this theory in several ways and also shared the importance of the research to the world of flight. 

Gurshaan's project was to discover the importance of open and closed circuits in electricity. Gurshaan found several items that could act as "insulators" to stop the flow of electricity. Incidentally, Gurshaan also competed this weekend in the Regional Kane County Spelling Bee at Dundee Middle School and came in 5th place out of 20 students!!!!  He's a 4th grader and this is his first time in the spelling bee, so that is an amazing accomplishment. SO PROUD OF YOU GURSHAAN!!!!

Saranya and Sarayu created this robot. They found that mass greatly effected movement. When they added mass to their robot, the robot moved at different rates. (Depending on where they added the mass.)





         

Ryne knows asthma is close to the lives of many.  In order to help us better understand how asthma effects us, Ryne had those who stopped by his display drink water from a straw to demonstrate how a "typical" person feels when taking in air.  He then had participants drink a milk shake from the same small straw. WOW was that hard! Ryne explains that having asthma feels just like that.  Ryne also created several videos to show how asthma occurs and under what circumstances. 

Arav, Jay and Asraar worked as a team to investigate alternate sources of power. They learned all about using "citric acid" as a source of power. Here they demonstrate using potatoes to light a bulb.  They found that working as a cooperative group was beneficial to them as they completed their investigation. They needed lots of hands and brains for this experiment!

Bhavya describes her project as a STEAM project since she used lots of art. (That's the "A.")  Bhavya decided to use coding to create a program that had cars "zooming" across the screen of her computer.  She practiced changing the values of her codes to have cars speed up and/or slow down.  She used Khan Academy as the site for her coding.  Try it, you'll love it!

Emelia, Jocelyn and Maya were not sure they were going to be able to complete their project.  However, they supported each other as a team and the 3 girls did an amazing job coding and building a robot that can pop balloons.  Using  the "Scratch" program, the girls were able to create a computer code which told the robot to turn toward a specific color balloon, move to it and pop it!  AMAZING!  The girls said that it was very tricky, but they stuck with it.  When asked how coding will help them in the future, they said, "Well, everything involves coding with jobs." "If we want to work with gaming, phones, or any computer programming job, we will need to know how to code."  

Mann and Arjun learned a lot about "Super cooling" during their experiment.  Super cooling is a way to "freeze" something, just enough to crystallize it. They learned that this process is used for organ transplantation. Currently super cooling is in the process of being researched for use in frozen foods to make them taste more like fresh foods.  Additionally, there are many animals that naturally use super cooling as part of survival.  

Glenbrook was just one of many schools that participated in the STEM Expo this year.  (400 students according to the Daily Herald.) It's amazing what students learn when they choose the topic they want to research and we just let them go. 

WAY TO GO GLENBROOK STUDENTS and all of School District U-46! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day from our Glenbrook Family to Yours

It's always fun to celebrate with a few treats and a lot of friendship.  Thanks to all of the parents who joined us for our celebration on Friday.  The day was filled with students writing compliment cards to one another, dancing, singing, crafts, games, movies and of course delicious treats.  Here are a few pictures so you can take a peek into our day.