Summer at GDS: Week 4 Newsletter

MIDWEEK CHECK-IN

July 10, 2019

Creative Challenges: Session 3 Water

This week during Creative Challenges Camp, students have been learning about water!

Starting off, they spent the first day learning about the water cycle: evaporation,condensation, and precipitation. They worked on art projects showing each stage of thewater cycle. Later on in the day, students played games with water as an ongoingtheme. In one game, the hallway represented a hot chocolate river and colorful stickersrepresented marshmallows. The challenge was to figure how to get five people across ahot chocolate river with only four marshmallows! On Tuesday, the group went on acruise with Anacostia Riverkeeper, a non-profit organization working to protect andrestore the Anacostia River and create opportunities for the community to connect tothe river. Today, the class learned about water density and how different densities cancause certain things to sink or float. They also created a rainbow of cups. Starting withred, blue and yellow water, they used paper towels to mix the colors and make orange,green and purple.

“WATER IS THE DRIVING FORCE OF ALL NATURE.” - LEONARDO DA VINCI

Introduction to Public Speaking and Debate

This week, elementary public speaking and debate students learned how to construct a speech, write a rebuttal, and craft a summary of their points. They created powerpoint presentations and did two minute speeches on debate topics of their choice. They also participated in SPAR debates and public forum debates on various topics. Topics include whether or not people should eat meat, if students should have PE everyday, if classroom pets benefit learning, and many more topics. The goal is for students to get better at research and feel more confident in their speaking abilities.

GREAT LEADERS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS GREAT SIMPLIFIERS, WHO CAN CUT THROUGH ARGUMENT, DEBATE AND DOUBT, TO OFFER A SOLUTION EVERYBODY CAN UNDERSTAND. - COLIN POWELL

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