Dr. George and IGNITE Ann Arbor

Dr. George came by our class this afternoon and shared his five-minute presentation on the Guatemalan windmill project that he recently delivered at Ignite Ann Arbor. 

Ignite is a really cool event with a simple idea: Speakers are allowed five minutes of stage time, and twenty slides. There are no pauses, breaks, questions, or do-overs, and the slides advance automatically. Once the slideshow begins, you've got five minutes to give your presentation. 

Dr. George's topic was the windmill project that kids have been working on. Check out George's blog for photos of students hard at work in Science Club, stripping old microwaves for parts to construct generators. 

George also brought a version of the generator for the kids to try out: 

Lee gives the generator a crank. Despite quite a lot of spinning on his part, it doesn't do much with a halogen bulb (visible on the wooden platform right by Lee's knee.) 

An LED, on the other hand, provides a much more powerful punch, and with less work. 

These generators can be created from salvaged parts from otherwise discarded items. Eventually, they'll be connected to windmills in Guatemala, allowing people to efficient, virtually-free electricity. (George also has plans to build one at S-K that will be attached to a stationary bike, allowing us to charge laptops while exercising!) 

Thursday lunch clean up

Our class has lunch clean-up duty every Thursday. It's a small, but important responsibility shared by the 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 homerooms. At the beginning of the year, it was often a chaotic, inefficient process. A surprising number of kids clearly had no idea how a broom actually works. More recently, the class has gelled into a (usually)effective and efficient team, and they even seem to enjoy the work. This photo was taken immediately following an impromptu broom dance by Gabe, who is probably thrilled and relieved that I'm not posting video of it here. On Fridays, the lunch room is cleaned by an assortment of volunteers from all of the homerooms, and I'm proud to say that there are always at least a few representatives from our class who help out.