SEP Session 3, Day 1 (9-11)

Many teachers began the first day of class by playing ice breaker games to help students learn more about their classmates. After learning more about each other, teachers introduced students to the foundation of their course.

Each day, we will feature several courses. The number of courses posted about each day will vary depending on our schedule and tasks for the day. Throughout the session, we will feature as many courses as possible.

Today in "Math, Statistics, Game Theory," students were introduced to coding and mini programming for games they can play themselves. Tic-Tac-Toe was the featured game of the day. The class was tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of various game strategies for Tic-Tac-Toe. Based on the precision and specificity of language used in each strategy, students determined which was better. And of course, they played the game using each of the strategies.

"Dimensions of Disadvantage," this morning was spent introducing the concept of intersectionality and media representations of minority groups. 

This afternoon in "Paper Roller Coaster," students began discussing the structures of roller coasters. In particular, they began building diagonal columns for support and engaging in cooperative competition.

Today in "Math, Statistics, Game Theory," students were introduced to coding and mini programming for games they can play themselves. Tic-Tac-Toe was the featured game of the day. The class was tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of various game strategies for Tic-Tac-Toe. Based on the precision and specificity of language used in each strategy, students determined which was better. And of course, they played the game using each of the strategies.

Today in "Periodic Explorations," students played a Periodic Table game that involved learning about their classmates and trying to identify elements based on simple clues. After the game, students took an Element Quiz/Questionnaire to test their knowledge of all the elements. From the quiz they were tested on which elements come first and last alphabetically, would discovered Uranium, and more.

Today in "Parsing Primary Sources: Learning to Read like a Historian," SEP 9-11 historians worked in pairs to read through an article about a current event. Students worked in their pairs to analyze different aspects of the article, such as the words or phrases used and the point of view of the source. The class then discussed their observations and shared their thoughts about the activity and how they can use these skills to look at the historical source. 

This morning in "Light! Mysteries of the Electromagnetic Spectrum," students learned how to keep a lab notebook (and one in which they can take pride in) and had an overview of light. They discussed what light is, how it is measured, and several of its properties. In particular, students discussed the speed of light in air, water, and a vacuum, refractive indexes, optical density, and refraction among other things.

Today in "From Hamlet to Black Panther," students took turns reading through Shakespeare's script of Hamlet, each reading the parts of different characters. As a class, they discussed the historical background of this dramatic text to further their understanding of the play. Then the class watched clips from two different movie adaptations of Hamlet and worked together to compare and contrast the two different versions paying particular attention to the representations of characters and the setting. 

Today in "Engineering Hogwarts," students learned about the six stages of design thinking through the lens of Star Wars. Students also learned about their final project. For their final project, groups will be coming up with a fantasy play and engineering something to help one of their characters overcome an obstacle. In preparation for the final project, groups created "group norms". Groups then participated in a team building activity where they created the tallest structure possible with seven pieces of paper.

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Best,

Nicole, Olivia and Abby