I’m 3-4 years removed from middle school, and today, I was reminded of life before high school. Middle school students are energetic, creative, and curious about everything around them. Our Human Bingo card was a little challenging. I tried to make it as specific as possible to our local culture, and for it to take a while. If you’re interested, here’s the bingo card I made: Human Bingo. I took it from a few different places, and a couple I wanted to add just because I was curious about some things.
For activities, we did the ZipLine Challenge, 2 Wheel Balloon Car, and Movement of Heat (Ice Cream in a Bag). The morning went by really fast. The older students (8th and 9th graders) blew through all the activities. The younger ones had issues with the time limit I set. This was a huge reminder that time limits are vastly different for 6th and 7th-8th graders. Tomorrow, I’ll need to figure out how to fix that. Also, next time, we should have more vanilla extract on hand because when I allowed students to pour their own stuff, it spilled.
I also totally forgot that we did Marble Launchers and Crazy Coasters! I used the Pasco Marble Launchers to do this. I now realize why we don’t use it during the school year. Launching marbles in a hot classroom was one of the most dangerous things I have ever elected to do in a classroom. Marbles were flying everywhere, students running after their marbles, and then there was the don’t hit the projector rule. It was an enjoyable madness. The Crazy Coasters took up a lot of time because the parameter I gave them was to make the coaster last 11 seconds. I could have probably expanded it and had them connect their coasters to make one really gnarly ride.
Here are some pictures:
A special thank you to my three student helpers, Ruby, Victoria, and Colin. They worked hard on putting kits together, and making sure every camp student got what they need.