A Proud Moment

Today we took our Laie Elementary 6th grade students to The Egineering Expo at the University of Hawai'i. We met the students at 6:30am in the morning and made arrangements with parents to help transport them down to UH. The students were excited and had high hopes of doing their best and maybe coming home with the experience. They were the only elementary school there the rest were intermediate schools, but they diligently worked in the different stations to show the spectators what they could do.
The Bridge Building team had a chance to take a picture with Pamela Young from KITV news. One of our students had an interview and appeared on the news. The RollerCoaster team was able to work together and come up with a design to take a marble on a ride landing in a cup. They had oak tag, chopsticks, tape, and scissors to create a roller coaster. The Solar Car team was the team that came away with a reward to take home. Who would have thought that are little Laie students would come away as 1st place winners...
Yes it was hard for us to believe at the time, but these little sixth graders were mighty mature critcal thinkers, and team players. They worked so well together to build the solar car and then held their composure as the raced their cars, ignoring the taunting and cheering from others around them. The students consisently won race after race, without a lot of pride they were mainly relieved. Finally the champioship race. there were two teams and casually our team raced and came away as the winners. They walked away in amazement, not shouting or cheering, but they were humbled they learned that doing your best and working together as a team does pay off...I am so proud of all of them. This is why teaching is the best job for me, to witness the results of hard work paying off. Congratulation Solar Car Team...you created a moment in Laie Elementary history.