4th Grade Symphony Trip and Barge Engineering

We had a marvelous time at the symphony!  We had really good seats in a section they call the boat.  The theme was Play Me a Story, so each song told parts of a story: setting, characters, and plot.  One of the highlights was when they played “Hedwig’s Theme” by John Williams.  It is the famous song from Harry Potter.  We learned that John Williams is a famous American composer who writes a lot of songs for movies including “Jaws”, “Jurassic Park”, “Home Alone”, and the Star Wars movies.

Don't they look great?!

We read an article called “The Great Pumpkin Race” in our SuperScience magazine.  We learned about buoyancy and inertia.  Then we worked in teams to design a barge out of aluminum foil.  We tested each barge by putting it in a tub of water and counting pennies as they were placed on the barge.  Then we talked about which barges worked the best and what we would do differently next time.