Mini Math Olympics by Prisha Singh

At Leading Edge, along with our Greek Olympics, we experienced a mini Math Olympics. In the Mini Math Olympics, we had competitions in which we had to do a series of awesome activities, such as shot put, discus, and some other amazing activities. Before, we did any of those activities, we each received a piece of paper in which we had to write down our scores from each of the many amazing games. Before we started the games, we estimated what would be our score.Since we were doing this in our math classroom, we had to change the activities a little bit. For example, we had to use cotton balls for the shot put activity and we used a paper plate for the discus activity. We grabbed as many marbles as we could and then we used a computer to convert their weight into grams. We also made a game where we had to grab a sponge out of super cold water and we were only allowed one squeeze and they measured in milliliters how much of the water we had squeezed. After we had done all of the activities,we wrote all of our scores. Then we found the difference between our estimates and our actual amount. The boy and girl with the least number of difference would be the winner of the Math Olympics and receive a Prize. In each period, there would be two winners, So six winners all together.

VIP Cards by Joey Honan

Before the break we started working on V.I.P CARDS. V.I.P stands for very important person in ancient Greece. We had to make 11 cards, on Greek philosophers and other famous Greeks like Plato, Hippocrates, and Sappho. On the front of each card we had to illustrate portraits of the famous Greeks and a symbols to show their achievements. On the back we had to write or type out important achievements, discoveries, and facts about the person. For at least 3 of the cards you had to put down quotes of the person. This assignment took a long time but it ended out outstanding. My favorite part was drawing the pictures and quoting the people. I took time because I wanted them to look just like the pictures. I left them in black and white because I thought it looked good. My favorite greek leader was Pericles. His name means surrounded by glory. He was the leader of Athens until his death and he helped build the Parthenon, he also lead the military. He was my favorite because he was a unique leader and my drawing of him turned out wonderful.

Ancient Greece Escape Room by Adam H

This week Mrs. Prettol set up an Escape Room for the Sixth graders,(including me obviously) that included two parts. A sort of ranking part and then the actual escape room. The ranking part was held the first day, and the winner of this event got a 15 seconds head start than the next ranking team in the actual escape room. The 1st day/part was fun, there were four puzzles to complete. All the puzzles were challenging and fun, but the last were the hardest. My team, Mytilene, came in first place the first day, so our team had the advantage the second day. Unfortunately, the advantage wasn’t enough for us to win the whole thing, we came in last place the second day. The second day was fun and frustrating for some groups, like mine. So, our group went in first(the second day) and then we finished the first puzzle in under three minutes, we were surely in the lead. After that, we started on the second puzzle and got stumped for a good twenty minutes. Fortunately for us, the third puzzle was really hard so we still had a chance to win it because everyone else was still working on that puzzle. Eventually, time ran out, and we never made it to puzzle four. In the process though, even if a group won or lost, I think the whole sixth grade had a lot of fun. It was really fun to work in groups and race to solve the 8 puzzles.

Sixth Grade Greek Olympics by Jennifer C.

Our Favorite Poems - Meindl Core

April is Poetry Month To celebrate, we kicked off the month by creating some poetry of our own inspired by artwork on Storybird. Here's Mrs. Bibayoff's Core Class' Poems:

DNA Extraction Lab by Nareg

Recently in Science/Tech we have been talking about cells and organisms, and with that we started learning about DNA and how it makes up every living thing. Mrs. Bibayoff of course wanted us to get an up close look at DNA before we started diving into how it works and the different parts. This activity was super fun and seeing the DNA in the end was pretty cool.

Our test subject was a strawberry that we put through a process to in the end achieve little tiny strands of DNA. Our first step was to mash up the strawberries in a plastic bag to crush some of the cells. We then mixed together a DNA extraction liquid (water, soap, and salt). With a coffee filter, we squeezed out the juice from the strawberry into a cup so that was all we were left with. The very last step was to add rubbing alcohol to the strawberry juice and wait a couple of seconds. Sure enough you could see little strands of DNA in the cup.

I thought this was a very cool hands on way for us to take a look at DNA up close.

*From Mrs. Bibayoff*

Sneak Peek at Coming up in Science/Tech: I've been talking with two different scientists to come in and visit our classes. One is a biologist that would lead us through collecting our own cheek cells to extract the DNA. The other is a neurologist (brain scientist) from the world renowned UC Davis MIND Institute who plans to bring in. . .  Sheep Brains! Hoping they are both able to join us in April.

DNA extraction lab today. 🤓 #NCSinnovates @NCS_LE pic.twitter.com/k3JQ4aGJCj

— Mrs. Bibayoff (@LEroomI3) March 28, 2017