3, 2, 1 Launch!

Trey Hagwood excitedly pumps air into his rocket as other students anticipate how high it will travel.

Bassett Community Center "Lego Challenges"

Students at the Bassett Community Center MHC After 3 Site enjoyed three days of the "Lego Challenges" program. One day was cancelled due to a snow storm!
They created some impressive skyscrapers:

Used their communication skills to try to build similar structures (using words only, no looking):

Created some Lego animal food chains:

And designed some artistic, yet stable bridges:




What a creative and inquisitive bunch of kids!

MHC After 3 site (Fall 2008)

MHC After 3 was filled with fun activities for participants at the VMNH site for Fall 2008:

Students honed their culinary skills as they prepared mouth-watering dishes such as battered deep fried apples and french toast with homemade maple syrup.

Brent Turner demonstrates how to make the perfect piece of french toast.

Kayla Scales, Trevon Hagwood, and April Turner (l-r) taste battered deep fried apples sprinkled with powdered sugar.

During a photography class, Rashid Martin (on the left) focused the camera lens on his subject as he prepared to take the perfect shot. Students learned how to manipulate pictures using Photoshop software and also discovered the history of photography.

Trevon Hagwood takes advantage of one-on-one time with Doug Williams as they collaborate in a songwriting class.

During free time, participants enjoy going outside to the local park behind VMNH, Frank Wilson Park.

Josiah Winesberry, Brandi Morris, Jermel Scales, and April Turner (l-r) spend a sunny, fall afternoon playing a friendly game of basketball with two educators from the Healthy Community Initiative.

Collinsville YMCA Lego Challenges

These are photos from the Lego Challenges program with the Collinsville YMCA group. To read more details about the program, read the earlier "Fieldale" post.

Skyscraper creations, complete with post and lentil structures:

Partner building:

A Lego Bird:

Building Bridges:

Building Racecars:

Lego Challenges with the Martinsville YMCA

Students in the Martinsville YMCA MHC After 3 group completed the Lego Challenges program (see earlier post for details). The students had some excellent designs and creations while building their skyscrapers, bridges and cars. These are some photos of the kids in action along with a few of their written descriptions:

"Today we built a building out of Legos. Then we tried to blow them down. It was really fun, but I was out of breath. Then we drew what our building would be like. My building is a big glass building built from glass made by the Sunrise Glass Company."

Domonique Chism

Alexis tries to build a structure that her partner is describing to her

Collinsville Y students hard at work, building their bridges

Marquis Reynolds displays part of the suspension bridge he created.

Alexis Gravely smiles with the arch bridge she built.

Jerry Joyce shows his 6-wheeled race car

Dominique Chism and his racing car

Lego Challenges at the Fieldale Community Center

Students at the Fieldale Community Center had fun building during the "Lego Challenges" program they participated in with VMNH educators. Each day the museum visited, they completed the following building challenges:


Tall Towers




On the first day they competed to see who could build the tallest tower out of Legos. Each tower had to withstand the powerful winds of Fieldale (created by the students). They learned about the tallest skyscrapers in the world, and the challenges the builders face. They then designed their own skyscrapers.










Communication Building














During this activity, pairs of students sit back to back. One student builds a structure, and then guides their partner (with words only) through the process to build the same structure. When finished, the two structures were compared to see how similar they were.















"It was hard to work in partners, because we didn't have great communication and had different logic" explained Shalanda Harrison. Destany Joyce said, "It was cool because we built exactly the same thing!" when working with her partner, Danielle Sessons.

Building Bridges
















On the third day, the students learned about the six main types of bridges and looked at some of the most famous and longest bridges in the world.
(Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge to learn about these bridge types.)















The teams constructed bridges out of legos that could cross a 10-inch gap between the tables. Each bridge was modeled after one of the six main types of bridges they had learned about.

Speeding Racecars

On the final day, each student built a Lego racecar using blocks, axels and wheels. They then "raced" their creations and calculated their speeds. The car with the fastest racing time (at 13.9 feet per second) was named "Billy" and was built by Sydney Pritchett. After having many races, in which there were several dramatic collisions, DeKayla Bostwick exclaimed, "My chest hurts now from laughing so hard!"

Weather or Not

This fall, I've been doing the "Weather or Not" program with the MHC After 3 groups. The students have done activities to explore barometric pressure, humidity, cloud formation, the water cycle, and more.












In this photo, students from the Bassett Community Center are watching their jars to determine how temperature affects air pressure.












Students from the Martinsville YMCA make a
cloud in a bottle.


To view more photos of this program go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/museumrobin/MHCAfter3Fall08?authkey=yKOVyurR0Eg#