Bluff View Intermediate classes blend Olympics with education
Bluff View fifth grade science lab students show off some of the flags they created to represent the different countries that participate in the Olympic Games. They will display the flags as they split up for competitions like the paper straw javelin and cotton ball shot put, through which they’re learning about metric measurement. Some of the fifth graders are pictured: (front row, from left) Austin Konichek, Alexander DeHart, Tessa Czajkowski Higgins, Garrett Lear; (back row) Lillian Shedivy, Kaylee Matousek, Carli Koenig, Piper Key and Aiden Thomas (Photo by Correne Martin)
By Correne Martin
The Olympics may have wrapped up on Sunday, but several classes at Prairie du Chien Public Schools continue flexing the Winter Games, and the worldly culture it necessitates into their curriculum.
The fifth graders in Diane Morovits’ science lab are doing a metric Olympics activity, as a way of incorporating current events into education about metric units of measurement. To start, the students were split into groups and then researched and colored flags from the different countries they will represent in their competition.
“The Olympics started as a way of bringing the countries together for peace and unity,” one fifth grader explained.
The actual contests will be in the coming weeks. The competition involves the paper plate discus (measuring in meters), paper straw javelin (measuring in meters), cotton ball shot put (meters), right handed marble grab (measuring grams), left-handed sponge squeeze (liters), and the rubber band shoot (meters). Students will estimate how far in metrics and then do the activity and score their differences.
This entire project will be additionally useful when the students blend their metrics knowledge with their science fair at the end of the year.
Third graders in Susan Boldt David’s classroom at Bluff View Intermediate have taken the time to incorporate the Olympics into their learning, and they’ve had a lot of fun doing so.
They made supportive signs for Prairie du Chien’s Olympian Matt Antoine, wrote a friendly letter and sent a class picture to him, watched videos of competition, researched different sports and athletes, learned about Olympic mascots and the Olympic rings, read daily updates, watched the Olympics at home and reported to the class, made pictures, made colorful USA necklaces, did crossword and word search puzzles, ate patriotic cupcakes and more.
More specifically, the students discovered that the Olympic gold medal is made up of mostly silver with a thin layer of gold overtop. They briefly discussed the Russian scandal.
They also read fun personal facts about Matt. They found out his dog’s name is Dixie, his nickname is “Cheese” and one of the activities he plans to do after the Olympics is to renovate old houses.
