On the bright and sunny morning of 15 February, grade 4 held an Energy Exhibition on the rooftop of the ES building to mark the end of their unit “How the World Works”. The students displayed their project creations that demonstrate the central idea "energy can be transformed and used for different purposes".
What normally would have been an event bustling with proud parents keen on seeing their child present, was instead a display of eager young learners enthusiastic about demonstrating their understanding of energy and how it can be used in various ways to the many interested teachers and staff that showed up to support the students.
The students had just under two weeks to complete their creations and followed a series of steps, starting with an investigation, and asking questions, and determining what they think they already know about the topic. After gathering background research, the next step was to formulate a hypothesis, followed by designing and testing the actual experiment and drawing conclusions.
Students had a range of interesting questions they chose to investigate, ranging from “can electrons travel through a donut without getting interference” to “can electricity give kinetic energy”, which they set out to demonstrate through their creations.
Some students chose to create posters and digital presentations, while others displayed circuit boards and wires, all telling the story of the student’s investigation or invention. The exhibition chronicled the students' work and presented concepts into basics that anyone who visited their display at the exhibition could understand.
“My energy experiment was about how many light bulbs I could light up with a battery. I was able to light up four lightbulbs with one battery. My hypothesis was that I wouldn’t be able to light up 4-5 with a strong connection but I was actually able to. I learned that most things are possible. If I could do another experiment using energy I would try to create energy using leaves.” - Amran, G4 student
“I followed the steps that I was taught and made it stronger by trying new ideas. Now I wonder how I could create a waterfall rainbow display using the energy from the reflection of the sun.” - Robert, G4 Student
“We hope students feel a sense of pride and accomplishment from working on a personal investigation and having the opportunity to share their findings with the larger ICS community.” - Callie Cantu, G4 Teacher
“I hope they will be able to connect this new understanding with what they already know about energy and go further to take action that makes differences such as educating people and themselves to conserve energy and use renewable energy and such.” - Azeb Mamo, G4 Learning Support Teacher
For more information about the Grade 4 Energy Exhibition please contact the Grade 4 teachers at g4.teachers@icsaddis.org.