Cantor Family Grant: 3,2,1 Liftoff!
- School Year: 2014-2015
- Applicants: Kathy Hardesty, Lead Teacher Martina Cravedi, Alison Foley, Courtney Jacklin
- School: Smith
- Subjects: Science
This innovative grant for the preschool and fifth grade students at Smith Elementary School will allow the children to improve their research skills, spatial relationships, geometric concepts, observational skills as well as data collecting. The two groups will work together to create hot air balloons out of tissue paper. The balloons will be tested and launched during the hot air balloon festival in mid May 2015. Students will learn the principles of lighter than air flight as well as concepts of temperature, density, and buoyancy. The children will take pictures and create videos of the balloon flight and share them during a school assembly. Pre- K through grade 5 students at Smith will build spatial, visual, conceptual and geometric skills by working with a computer program called Sketch Up and a Makerbot 3D printer. The children will dream up an idea, sketch it in the 3D drawing program and print it. They will be able to touch, feel and look at the object from all angles. This project will expose the children to industrial design and engineering possibilities in the future.