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NewsDepth A+: Time Warp

Imagine it’s the first day of school, and there’s a powerful thunderstorm rolling through your town, and BOOM! All of a sudden lightning strikes and sends you back to 1985! The only way you could get back to good ‘ole 2022 was to collaborate with your classmates to solve puzzles using your science, technology, engineering, art, and math skills. Well, the fifth grade students in Mrs. Thorbahn’s class, at Chamberlin Hill Elementary in Findlay, had that exact experience,and their outstanding teamwork and problem solving earned them this week’s A+ Award.  

In order to hit the ground running…  err learning, the students spent the first few days of the school year showing off their ability to solve problems. Caroline told us that they had to solve puzzles and challenges by relying on each other. She explained that a big key to being successful is by showing perseverance. Perseverance is doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Elliot told us that one of the puzzles required them to research facts about 1985, including popular music, the space shuttles, and historical events. They even had to figure out the day of the week that the events happened on! She  told us that it was a bit challenging because they had to remember they were in 1985, not 2022. 

It wasn’t all history though, Lincoln told us that there were even challenges that required them to mix different colors to solve the puzzle. Brenna told us that there was a lot of math as well. They had to measure the distances between buildings, and calculate the cost of mailing a letter in 1985. .  

The students we spoke with told us that it was really important to be able to work as a team and to trust each other’s ideas. Brenna went on to tell us that one of the biggest lessons she learned was that it is very important to believe in yourself and you have nothing to lose by always doing your best. Very wise words. 

This week’s A+ Award goes to the fifth grade STEAM class at Chamberlin Hill Elementary school for using their problem solving skills and team work to get back to good ‘ole 2022 after being sent back to 1985.

Submit your ideas for our NewsDepth A+ segment to newsdepth@ideastream.org for consideration.