As your children work in the STEM classroom, the majority of the hands-on learning experiences will be completed collaboratively with their peers.  All students have been assigned to a table group of four individuals.  This is the group that your child will be working with for the year.  There is a point system in place that gives each class the opportunity to choose partners/group for an activity, after five points have been earned.  In order to practice working together, each grade level participated in a STEM collaborative challenge! The challenge was not linked to the upcoming units of study, but instead was a fun activity to teach/review and practice the expectations of working together.

• Kindergarten – Our focus in Kindergarten was to practice using our five senses to observe different objects and to determine what they could be.  Students worked in groups to discuss their thoughts and describe objects using their senses, including yummy popcorn!
• Grades 1 – 2 were engineers for the day! After reading the beginning of The Three Little Pigs, the students were asked to construct a house for one of the pigs.  They could only use the materials provided, and the house & pig had to survive the huffing and puffing of our big bad wolf (a blow dryer!).  The students had so much fun and learned that challenging tasks require teamwork.  We talked about their strategies and what made certain structures more stable.  Great teamwork engineers! I encouraged the students to build and create at home. Some fun family suggestions would be to create a structure out of straws that could support a clementine or a tower of spaghetti noodles using marshmallows.

• Grades 3 – 4 worked collaboratively to save our gummy worm, Sam.  Poor Sam was enjoying a day of sailing when his boat capsized!  The students worked in pairs to save Sam, by placing him through a gummy lifesaver.  This may not seem challenging until you learn they were unable to use their hands.  Each student was given 1 paperclip and the other hand had to be placed behind his/her back.  As a team, the students had to collaborate, communicate, and problem-solve to save Sam in a certain amount of time.

• Grades 5 – 6 received an Engineering Mystery Bag Challenge.  Inside a brown paper bag was a variety of materials: straws, craft sticks, string, rubber bands, cups, etc.  In groups of three, the students worked together to complete the engineering task.  The finished device had to launch a pom pom in the air as far as possible! Unfortunately not all classes had enough time to demonstrate their pom pom launchers, but their devices were displayed for the class to see.  We discussed the engineering process and many groups realized the importance of brainstorming ideas before beginning the challenge. Great job, engineers!

Next cycle each grade level will be beginning our first STEM unit of the year.  Below is a quick list of the topics per grade level.

• Kindergarten – Trees & Weather
• 1st Grade – Solids & Liquids
• 2nd Grade – Pebbles, Sand, and Silt (Earth’s Materials)
• 3rd Grade – Measuring Matter
• 4th Grade – Energy and Electromagnetism
• 5th Grade – Motion, Force, and Models
• 6th Grade – Seeing Animal Sounds (Sound Unit)

~ Mrs. McCabe