December at Downey Elementary

December was an exciting month at the Foundry! We had the honor of hosting the district principals and vice principals for an interactive event centered on project based learning and STEAM education. It was an amazing time to discuss and collaborate on projects happening in the district. Let’s take a quick look to see what’s been happening at one of our elementary schools, Downey:

This month at Downey, 3rd grade wrapped up their Fruit Fly Genetics Lab! In the course of a month, students tracked the genetic variances of the common fruit fly by breeding white-eyed flies with red-eyed flies. Every week, students anesthetized their vials of fruit flies to count and observe the fruit flies close up! This project gave students a tangible opportunity to better understand what they were learning in their genetics and life cycle unit. The 3rd grade teachers worked to integrate the project with data collection, graphing, and basic mathematics. This was the first year running this project and the teachers, led by Samara Young, did an outstanding job! Success!

In late November, Trout in the Classroom also launched. Our trout eggs arrived at Downey and the students excitedly jumped into the project. This project is taking place with Matthew Kloss’s 4th grade classroom. Every morning, we checked the egg sacs and removed any dead eggs. After equipment checks, we worked to test the water to ensure that the PH, nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia were at healthy levels for our new fish friends! In early December, our eggs hatched and the sac fry started out their little lives getting nutrients from their egg sacs. Once the egg sacs were depleted, the fish finally started to swim! It was amazing to watch these new fish search for food. Students love to watch these fish grow and learn! This project is accompanied by a Trout in the Classroom Journal in which students track their data and make observations about the fish. Stay tuned to see more about the growth of our trout!