Katie F., INTL* middle school student, had the opportunity to take part in the Khan Academy Discovery Lab over the summer. The program, which was hosted at INTL's Cohn Campus, was developed for summer "campers who are curious about the world and have a hunger to learn and explore."
The subjects the Lab focuses on are math, science, robotics, engineering, etc. It's hands-on teaching in a setting that allows students to be engaged and to collaborate. Below is a peek inside a day in the life of a Khan Academy Discovery Lab camper.
Day 1: The most fun part of the day was learning about the polyhedron and creating the giant balloon Sierpinski tetrahedron and the paper Sierpinski tetrahedron.
The intro was awesome, cause we did an estimating game and a sheet where you had to fill out as many possible boxes without repeating a name. Learning about polyhedra was very interesting too, because first they made us make some out of paper so there was the icosahedron, 1 dodecahedron, and 8 tetrahedra. Then, out of the eight tetrahedra we made 2 Sierpinski tetrahedron which we joined with the other 2. This made a 2nd degree Sierpinski tetrahedron. After, the whole class joined theirs together to make a 3rd degree Sierpinski tetrahedron.
After our lunch break, we did a 3rd degree sierpinski tetrahedron out of balloons, which as you can imagine, was quite big. We had to assemble it in another class so we could get it through the door. Later in the day, we had a period where we could do"free choice", where you could choose either to do games/puzzles with Karl, go outside and play another game of our choice with Kathryn or go to another room to do some more polyhedra out of balloons. My friend Georgia and I choose to do the latter.
In no time at all, we had mastered how to make a cube, then we set out figure out how to make a dodecahedron, which took us the rest of the time. It was quite complicated! First, you had to make two bases, then you had to attach the end of some of the balloons to the middle of the others. We ended the day by taking out laptops and doing a daily student review and a daily summary of the day.
Here are some Discovery Lab video presentations from our very own INTL students, Georgia and Katie:
Katie's (with Miles and Noah) Video
*In 2020, the International School of the Peninsula (ISTP) formally changed its name to Silicon Valley International School (INTL) to better reflect its bilingual programs, location, and international values.
