PIE program wins "Be the Change for Kids" Innovation Award

Yesterday our PIE program received the "Be the Change for Kids" Innovation Award! This award was developed by the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering with the New York State School Board's Association. Three schools were chosen from dozens of districts that applied from across the state. The award comes with a $5,000 grant for the PIE program which will be used to enhance the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) component of the PIE curriculum. To see a video clip of our trip click on this link: "Be the Change" Innovation Award

The judges were impressed with Warwick's PIE program, stating, "This program successfully engages parents in their children's education, and does so in a creative fashion with parents working with the kids on solving a problem, making presentations and/or researching materials for instruction." Professor Dean Fuleihan spoke to all the students yesterday and told the 3 winning schools that one of the reasons the judges selected their schools as award winners was because their school programs foster cooperation and citizenship. The judges felt that these two qualities were very important for someone who works in the field of science because scientists work together on projects for long periods of time to see how things work.

Some of our PIE students took a tour of the college and got to see what scientists do all day. Students visited biology labs and saw a scientist studying cancer cells under the microscope. They also viewed chemistry labs and the nanoscale science "clean rooms." The kids got a kick out of seeing the scientists wearing their head-to-toe white suits, "They look like astronauts!" However, they learned that when you are working in a clean room you have to keep any dirt and dust particles from floating in the air, otherwise, they can get into the small silicon chips that the scientists work on. There were many different types of machines to see, everyone's favorite was the machine that carried the nanochips from one room to another. The tiny chips were placed into a box that ran along tracks in the ceiling overhead!

Bus ride

Lunch outside- we loved the shape of the buildings!

Our tour guide showing the kids an enlarged picture of the inside of a computer chip

The "Clean Room"

Nano transport!

Chemistry lab

We had a great day!

A Visit to the Sycamore Tree

On Wednesday afternoon the PIE K/1 students walked across the school grounds to visit their sycamore tree. Each class in the PIE program has a tree that they observe throughout the school year. Last year the PIE K/1 students had been visiting a gorgeous old tree, but sadly after Hurricane Sandy roared through Warwick their giant, old tree fell down. So what does a PIE teacher do when a problem arises??? They call some parents and say, "HELP! We need a tree!" A new tree was selected and this is what it looked like in the morning...

So the parents did this...

and after a few hours, it looked like this!

The setting was now perfect for the kids to come down and get a close up view of their new tree. This tree is a good hike across school grounds; all three K/1 classes walked out to the new site on a beautiful, sunny day. A group of parents came along for the hike too! Mrs. Barlow-Layne began the science lesson by showing the students their tree and then she led the students in a song called, The Green Grass Grew All Around. Play the video below to sing along with your child!             

                                

                                      

The kids in action!

Each teacher led a part of the lesson, Mrs. Barlow-Layne talked with the students about what it means to observe things like a scientist, Mrs. Nachtigal modeled for the students how to observe something and showed them how to draw what they observe in their Nature Journals, and Mrs. White read a story about a tree to all the children. It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

                                

The first page of a student's Nature Journal, it's going to be a great year!