College For Kids Picture Day

The end of the first session of College For Kids is just around the corner! Tomorrow is the final day for the June term of College For Kids, and we’ll be celebrating our wonderful students and instructors with the Showcase of Learning. The Showcase of Learning is an opportunity for parents to join their students for the final day of College For Kids and see their hard work come to life with projects, presentations, and performances in the classes. Parents can also join students for lunch at the end of the day!

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look into our group picture day. Shout out to Mr. Scearce, the Astronomy and Remote-Piloted Aircraft instructor, and Mr. Campagna, the Photography instructor, for donating their talents to make picture day a unique and commemorative experience. Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for the Showcase of Learning!

College For Kids: Physics Class Egg Drop

The Physics class at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids demonstrated their egg-cellent egg-dropping skills for this experiment. Each student constructed an apparatus for their egg, which was used to prevent the egg from being destroyed on impact. The students took the mass of their egg and apparatus, and measured the distance from the ledge to the ground and the time it took the egg to reach the ground. While not all the eggs emerged unscathed, some of the apparatuses did manage soften the impact just enough to leave the eggs with a mere crack or two!

College For Kids: Chemistry of Food Science

The students in the Chemistry of Food Science class at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids are hungry for knowledge about the chemistry behind some of their favorite foods! The class hypothesized and performed two experiments, one with Coke and baking soda, and another with Diet Coke and Mentos. Some brave students even taste-tested the soda after the experiment as part of their observation process. The class also ventured into the lab to pop popcorn kernels using Bunsen burners, which the students used to heat aluminum foil with kernels inside. The students took notes on how many kernels popped and the temperature at which the kernels popped as part of their lab report on the experiment. On Friday, July 1st, Chemistry of Food Science will be celebrating the Showcase of Learning day by making ice cream with their parents!

College For Kids: Archaeology of Iowa

The Archaeology of Iowa class at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids experimented with flint knapping and throwing spears with atlatls to learn more about ancient hunting techniques. The students used stone tools to craft arrowheads, and then threw wooden spears at a target using an atlatl, which was used to increase throwing distance and power. While it took a few tries to finesse the technique, the students were throwing spears well past the target both with atlatls and by hand by the end of the hour! Check out their work, and learn more about atlatls from their instructor, Miss Cherie Haury-Artz.

College For Kids: Ta Dye For Tie Dye Class

Miss Poplawski’s tie dye class at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids is a creative and colorful opportunity for students to create unique and vibrant works of tie dye art! Beyond making great tie dye shirts, the students have learned about different forms of tie dye and practiced making their own special tie dye pieces. Today, the students learned how to use wax to trace over sketches on silk pieces. The wax helps to keep the dye at bay so that students can create shapes and drawings with different colors of dye without mixing colors! Next week, Ta Dye For will be working on making infinity scarves and using ice as a tool for tie dying. We can’t wait to see the next work of art they’ll create!

College For Kids: Math Power!

The students in Brian Reynolds’s Math Power class at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids used their hands-on problem solving skills to apply math to real-life situations! In today’s class, Reynolds had the students calculate the number of license plates possible in Iowa, the number of ways to organize seven books, and possible combinations of people for sports teams using techniques of probability, factorials, and permutation. Math Power and classes like it at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids can help kids maintain and improve their academic skills over the summer, one fun math problem at a time!

College For Kids: Sing! Act! Dance!

The Sing! Act! Dance! class at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids is overflowing with talent and dedication from both students and their instructor, Miss Lyn A’Hearn. Miss A’Hearn coached the students on the importance of confidence and stage presence during an audition with demonstrations of posture and singing techniques. These hard-working students overcame stage fright by auditioning for roles in their upcoming performance of scenes from Mulan in front of their peers! The students sang songs from Mulan a cappella and with a piano, and practiced dialogue as Mulan and Li Shang. Join us next week on July 1st for the Showcase of Learning to see their performance!

College For Kids: Photography Class Spotlight

 

College For Kids Photography Class Campus Walk

It was a beautiful day here at Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids, and College For Kids instructor Bob Campagna’s photography class took advantage of the great weather and sunlight to practice their photography skills. The class walked around Coe College’s campus and alumni garden to find inspiration and hone their techniques!

First Day of College For Kids 2016!

Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids – First Day! (June Session)

Today marks more than the first day of summer, it’s also the first day of Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids! Over 500 local middle school students are registered for the June session, which includes classes in food science, dissection, geometry, physics, theater, digital photography, art, and much more! Stay connected with Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids by visiting our blog for daily updates and checking out our YouTube channel. Here’s a peek into the first day at College For Kids! Stay tuned for more hands-on summer learning fun!

Welcome to the College For Kids Blog!

Hello! Thanks for visiting the Grant Wood AEA’s College For Kids blog. On this site, we’ll share pictures and videos from College For Kids classes, interviews with teachers and students, and important updates about the program. Stay connected by checking this blog every day to see what your students are learning at College For Kids!

It’s going to be a great summer!