Director of Teaching & Learning Miles Azzeh's Academic Spotlight: Amanda Thomas and Alisha Holyfield
Our Lansing USD 469 teachers are incredible at engaging our students in fantastic learning opportunities to reach their full potential every day in our district. To highlight and bring recognition to this great work, Director of Teaching and Learning Miles Azzeh will be regularly shining a spotlight on a stand-out teacher through "academic spotlights."
This school year's first Academic Spotlight goes to our two AMAZING 6th-grade science teachers, Amanda Thomas and Alisha Holyfield! They recently did a "Paper Airplane Inquiry Lab" with their students as an engaging way to introduce independent, dependent, and controlled variables. Students created paper airplanes and did the following tests:
- Test Option 1 - Which type of paper will fly furthest: copy, notebook, or construction?
- Test Option 2: Which folded paper airplane design will fly the furthest?
- Test Option 3 - Which amount of paper clips (mass) added to the nose of the airplane causes the paper airplane to travel the furthest?
Students measured and recorded data from each plane and then graphed their results to compare their test options with their peers in class. As great teachers often do, Amanda and Alisha made some favorable variations to the lab from previous years:
"This year, we revamped our lab for teaching variables. I think the students enjoyed the lab much more than they did in previous years. The students had more flexibility with choices on what their independent variable would be. A lot of students were surprised by their results. One class had a group throw one of their planes over 1000 cm!" - Amanda Thomas
The best part of coming to observe this lab was the excitement and collaboration the students were exhibiting! It was apparent they were not only having a blast but also learning as they did so:
"I learned that even when I add more paper clips (mass) to my plane, my plane will still fly further if I control how I fly my plane. I thought the heavier plane would not fly as far." - A student from Ms. Holyfield’s 1st hour class
"I enjoyed collecting the data to see how far each plane went. I was surprised the construction paper went as far as it did. I thought it would be too heavy, so it wouldn't go far. It was fun." - Furious Irlmeier
"The lab was fun. I liked doing a fun activity and discussing it with my friends. I feel like you don't get that a lot in middle school." - Brooklyn Patton
"It was pretty cool. We got all the data to see which plane went the furthest. The copy paper went furthest - 657 centimeters." - Anthony Wahlberg
While trying to throw their paper airplanes the farthest was every student's goal, many were simply having a joyful time with their peers. Alisa was happy to see the students having fun doing the experiments.
"It was incredible watching my students have fun learning. They applied the scientific method by making a prediction and testing their hypothesis. I was proud of their hard work during this process, but I especially loved watching them smile and laugh as they worked. - Alisha Holyfield
There's nothing better than seeing kids enjoying themselves as they learn new and essential concepts.
Shout out to Amanda and Alisha for making that happen!