STEM
About Mrs. Fryer
My primary goal as a teacher is to help students love learning. I love to build a safe classroom community where students are comfortable emotionally and physically. I want my students to be able to make choices about where they sit and how they learn best. I encourage my students to take charge of their own learning, so they are not solely dependent on me to direct them. I love empowering students to use technology to learn and communicate about things they are curious about. I enjoy helping students also develop "their voice" and how to share it responsibly with others both inside and outside our classroom. I love partnering with parents and especially enjoy sharing our learning with parents using our technology tools like our Seesaw portfolios. I also love helping students develop their computational thinking skills through a variety of design thinking, robotics, and special coding projects. These are skills which benefit students now and will be important to them as problem solvers and collaborators with others in the future.
I started teaching at Casady in August of 2017. From 2013-2017 I taught 3rd/4th grade students at Positive Tomorrows (@ptokc), Oklahoma’s only elementary school specifically for homeless children. In 2015 I was named PBS Digital Innovator, and was selected by PBS as one of four teachers nationally to address the annual PBS Broadcasters’ Conference in Chicago in May 2016. I have offered several after school coding and physical computing / robotics enrichment classes for elementary students in grades 1-5. In 2018 I became a Code.org facilitator offering coding workshops for teachers in the Oklahoma City Metro area. I am an advocate for Maker Education in the classroom and I provide frequent opportunities for students to create, make and learn in the classroom.
Amplify Science Curriculum
This year we will be using the Amplify Science Curriculum. This curriculum is based on the Next Generation Science Standards and blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers. Details about the NGSS standards and descriptions of our units are included in this PDF link.
Science Units
The Amplify Science Grade 3 Science Course includes four units that support students in meeting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
1. Balancing Forces: Investigating Floating Trains.
2. Inheritance and Traits: Variation in Wolves.
3. Environments and Survival: Snails, Robots, and Biomimicry.
4. Weather and Climate: Establishing an Orangutan Reserve.
Coding Curriculum
As a part of our STEM focus, students will be learning to make and create in Scratch. Scratch is a graphical programming language, developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Scratch allows children to learn coding concepts and create interactive projects without needing to learn a text-based programming language.
What is curiosity?
Curiosity is having a strong desire to learn or know something. Folks who are curious often don't "need" the information they inquire about. They seek answers to their questions for the sake of gaining knowledge. Those who are curious may also actively seek out challenges and new experiences to broaden their horizons.
Curiosity is a key ingredient of learning. It leads to knowledge but also to the ability to make connections among various pieces of information. For parents of curious kids, it's less important to have the "right" answers and more important to create an environment where questioning -- and learning -- can occur.
You can help kids develop curiosity by encouraging questions, finding media that stimulates curiosity, and helping kids find credible sources to build their knowledge.
These are links that students have watched together in class, and are available to view at home.
Wolves of Yellowstone National Geographic
eBird Lake Hefner Bird Observations
Sign Language ABC's: Students are learning to sign their names and introduce themselves during class meeting.
NGSS Engineering at JPL: Introduction: Introduction to our Lunar Design Challenge
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine
Painting Butterflies with CRISPR
20 Nao Robots Dancing (used in our "Code your own dance" lesson.
Broadway Boogie Woogie ( Video Animation of Piet Mondrian's famous painting.
Deconstructing Piet Mondrian: The Story Behind an Iconic Design
The Blue Marble: "After 3 months of work and probably more than 500 fails, I'm happy to present you my best chain reaction video ever. " Kaplamino
Blue Marble 2: Here is episode 2 of the blue marble! Same concept as the 1st, a big one marble path on the table in one take.
The Floating Train Video: This is the video we have been observing in class! We have been using our thinking routine: See, Think, and Wonder to find out more about how it works.
These are supplemental links to encourage students to find out more about things that spark their curiosity!
More information about the Lower Division at Casady School is available on our main website.