Engineering Design

In third grade enrichment this year our classroom activities have been fairly well synched to the work students are doing in their regular classroom.  Our work has focused on enhancing and adding to the science and social studies curriculum.  However for the last four weeks, we left this lock step and students have been spending time in enrichment experiencing the engineering design cycle.  Time in the enrichment classroom is often spent making and creating, but for this challenge I wanted students to have a larger purpose.  Accordingly to the Engineering is Elementary website (http://www.eie.org/overview/engineering-design-process) in order to experience an engineering design cycle, students must ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.  

Ask--What is the problem?  

We began our engineering design cycle by asking the question: What bugs you?  After we clarified that siblings did not count (!) and that students had to think about things in their daily life, or community or world problems that bothered them..the ideas began to flow! Each student began with an Inventor's journal in which they wrote down their 'bugs'. This was an odd experience for us...spending a large chunk of time just documenting negative things.....but we discussed the idea that often great inventions are born from necessity or the desire to improve something.  Many students wanted to jump right into creating, but to honor the design cycle we spent one class period simply asking questions.  I encourage you to talk to students about what bugged them.  The lists were thoughtful and interesting. Some students focused on one particular issue and spent time thinking about the constraints and how others have approached fixing the problem, while others listed many ideas!  Since students had just completed a persuasive essay, I encouraged them to try to think of physical things that they could manipulate, design or change.  A very few students really struggled to think of any issue that they felt worth working on and so they brainstormed with myself or a partner. (Can you imagine if nothing bugged you?  I think that sounds nice, so could not find fault in that feeling if they truly meant it!) 

Imagine- What are some solutions?  Brainstorm and pick your best idea!

On the second day students read back through their problems.  Some added a new problem they had thought of since our last meeting too.  Then the creative process began.  Some drew pictures, others wrote down ideas, some talked to a classmate or me.  Students added an idea or ideas to their Inventor's Journal of how they would solve their problem.

Plan- Draw a diagram and make lists of materials you will need.

Before leaving our class on the second day, students had to create a materials list. They let me know what they might need to build a prototype.

Create-  Follow your plan and create a prototype.  Test it out.

Last week students began building their prototypes.  We had many successes and many failures.  We learned that sometimes  making something is harder than imagining how to make it! 

Improve- What works? What doesn't? What could you do better?

We are finding that improving and creating are happening all together as students iterate on ideas as they complete their prototypes.

By next week our goal is to have a working prototype that students can bring home to share with families.  I also challenged students to think of a name for their invention!

As we wrap up, stay tuned for a video of their awesome prototype inventions!

Elementary Science Fair Design and Implementation

For the last six years one of my roles as the Richmond Elementary School enrichment teacher is to organize and host our annual science fair.  I have done quite a bit of research into the different types of fairs and how they are run.  Taking my cues from our previous enrichment teacher I continued the RES tradition of making the fair a non judged family event as I looked into ways to increase student engagement, attendance and learning.  I read about problems that other schools had experienced and tried to figure out ways to avoid what seemed to be common complaints, including:  competition between kids and families to have the best project, students not spending time sharing their project, unclear expectations, a disconnect between school and this extra activity and exclusiveness of attendees ( limited by financial and home support).

Although every large school event has challenges, I am very proud of the RES science fair. I will continue to modify the fair to support our students and attempt to increase learning and fun for everyone....but I thought it was also worth summarizing some of my strategies and tools that have worked and not worked so far!  

Positives:

Science Fair Passports:

I have created a science fair passport.  Every student that attends the fair can work on completing a passport.  The passport has six locations.  When a student asks a student with a project a good science question, the science fair participant can give them a stamp (I use markers that kids return at the end of the night and students decide the design of their stamp from a circle to a smiley face!)

Science fair participants are asked to be at their project for at least half the evening,but this is not hard to achieve once you add the passports because they have a job to do....they have to answer science questions!  The high value in this passport system is that it encourages excellent conversations between students!   They take their job of asking and answering questions seriously and do it without adult supervision.  Last week I witnessed second graders talking about a solar system project.  As I listened from the background the two figured out how long it took for Earth to rotate and revolve.  AND they figured it out through collaboration and critical thinking (the student project had just named and created each planet with a single fact about each one).

To encourage passport participation I purchase several science 'prizes' that are raffled off with passport entries at the end of the evening.

Non Judged, Family Event

Although some elementary science fairs are competitive and encourage individual independent student projects..the RES science fair expectations are clearly set as being an opportunity to share our passions and learning.  I also encourage students to work together, and to work with their families.    

Each student who attend the fair gets a participation certificate, their name in the program for the event, and I usually get them each a small token (pencil, badge, isn't snow packets, etc).

Event Date

I set the date of the science fair at the beginning of the year.  I publish it on the school calendar.  I broadcast the date to our school community(parents and teachers) multiple times well in advance of the fair...including blog posts and fliers home.  I send out information and ideas about what a science fair project might look like and provide links to previous fairs as well as ideas and resources.

Setting up this event on a consistent date allows for everyone to plan accordingly.  Families can fit the project making in when it is convenientfor them. 

Making Classroom Connections  

 Some years teachers incorporate the fair into the curricular learning and it provides a great opportunity for students to share their in class projects.  Last year the entire third grade shared their light up animals as a culminating activity for their electricity unit.  In years past we have also hi lighted inventions and energy projects.

I also request that classroom teachers give students homework passes for the time they are working on their project.  This gives families more time to work on the project and helps to support the fair. Classroom teachers have been very supportive of this idea and have even had students bring their projects and ideas to class to share outside of the fair!

Encouraging Families Without Projects to Attend

Over the last few years one of my biggest goals is to attract families to attend, even if they did not complete a project.  This encouragement has really built a sense of excitement..as well as a lack of pressure for those families that want to participate but could not find the time to create a project. We have doubled our non project families!  

Need Improvement:

Adding Additional Aspects Beyond our School Participants 

We have invited our middle school technology group to share some of their learning at fairs. This has been a bit challenging as the timeline does not always fit in with their schedule and so lining up a fit has not yet proven successful.  My first year I invited a local engineer to put on an electricity demonstration.  It was well received and very exciting, but in discussions afterward, the engineer and I agreed that it took time away from student time at their own projects...which should be the focus of this event.

School Support for Project Creation

I have offered after school classes leading up to the science fair to support students creating projects for the fair.  This was a great strategy for including more students and increasing the number of students who did not have support at home to complete a project...but changes to the after school programming, my own personal schedule, and cost became prohibitive.  When we did this program it involved volunteers and my own time and we met once a week for an hour and a half for three weeks.  This was plenty of time to create a meaningful project with twenty students.  We continue to offer financial support for families who would like to participate in the fair through our school activities scholarship program.  

Encouraging Attendance

For several years one of the passport prizes at the fair was getting to pie myself, or our principal in the face!  This was a big hit with many students and families, but some families expressed concern that it was taking away from the point of the fair.  Although I think it just added to the fun, I removed it this year, with no negative consequences to attendance and passport participation.

Future Work:

I would like to continue to increase attendance at the fair.  I would also like to invite some community guests to witness the brilliance of our kiddos!  

Do you have ideas about how to make a science fair great?  Have you participated in the RES science fair, and have feedback?  If so I would love to hear from you.  I am also happy to share any of the resources I have created, from fliers to passports and programs....so if you are a teacher trying to start a fair in your school....feel free to email me!

Talking Robots Share our Learning

At the beginning of the electricity unit, third grade students spent time in enrichment building 2D or 3D robots with a variety of recycled materials.  The only guideline was that students be creative, and think about where they might want to later light up the robot!  Creativity and imagination was evident as students built robots that had specific jobs (a refrigerator, a generator, and more!), robots that focused on design elements (fabric skirts, hats and hair), robots that resembled something in real life (hamburgers, vacuum cleaners, well known robots), robots that were 3D (some even had wheels that moved!).... just name a few!

Once the robots were created, we put them on a shelf for a while as we deepened our understanding of what electricity is and how it works. Students had opportunities to explore a variety of materials--including squishy circuits, Little Bits and Snap Circuits (exploration started in the enrichment classroom and then extended to maker spaces in each classroom). This exploration was coupled with classroom instruction and electricity labs.

With all of this great learning under their belts, students were ready to go back to their robots and build a circuit that would light them up!  Students had to use their learning about electricity to do this task...but at the same time it was fun and creative! I was so happy to see the joy students had in working on an assessment of their knowledge.  The assessment was meaningful and important to them, and it also allowed teachers to do a check in on student understanding and clear up any misconceptions or confusions!

For the last two classes, students in third grade enrichment have spent time designing circuits and lighting up robots! Once students had a lighted robot, they created a short video clip using an iPad application called Chatterpix.  This is a fun app that can make any picture you take (in this case of their robot) talk with your own voice.  Here is a video compilation of the robots sharing their electricity learning and favorite moments from our unit. Enjoy!

Science Fair Resources

The science fair is coming! On Thursday March 10th RES students in grades K-4 are invited to come and share their great science fair projects with our community.  The science fair is a great way for students and families to work together to explore and learn about topics that interest them.

Not sure where to get started?  I highly recommend starting with your interests! Is there a topic you studied in school that you would like to learn more about? Is there something you have always wondered about--maybe how it works?  Do you have a special collection you would like to share?

The RES science fair is a non judged family event...which means adult help is welcome and appreciated..AND kids can work together to create projects too!

Not sure where to get started? Here are a few resources!

I love this website. It has tons of great project ideas and even lets you answer a survey to narrow down the choices to your interests!
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

This site also has great examples, and includes some great videos which will support visual learners too! Although they are also a business trying to sell science materials, it includes many great free resources in the 'Experiments' section:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/

And one more of my favorites!
https://sciencebob.com/category/science-fair-ideas/

In addition, the RES school  library is full of science project ideas and resources.  Did you know you can check out additional books with a family account?  See Mrs. Redford to set this up.

And lastly, I have several science project idea books, and am happy to discuss and brainstorm ideas with kids or families....just stop by and see me, OR email me to set up some time!

The science fair is always a highlight of my teaching year, and I look forward to seeing the projects that you all create.   Happy Experimenting, Discovering and Learning!
Have FUN!

Coding in After School Enrichment

Coding. An instructional language for your computer. Coming to elementary schools and learners at RES and beyond!!!

Until recently the language of computer coding and it's use has been limited to experts in the field (some trained and some self trained).  I definitely age myself when I share with students how my first learned computer language was Fortran, followed by programming in C where my college final project was a computer coded, animated, snow scene!!!(And this was no simple task at the time!) Now students can build scenes and animation in minutes as they learn the building blocks of code and command sequencing from awesome programs such as Hour of Code, Scratch, Tickle, Minecraft and more.

For the last few weeks I have been working with a group of students in kindergarten through fourth grade on Thursdays after school. When I first designed this course, I knew from the beginning that we would be learning from each other.....and it has been AWESOME! The great thing about coding is from the beginning you understand that your work will grow and change as you understand more, explore, and take risks.  Students have been involved in critical and logical thinking, creativity and problem solving.  They have shown a great deal of collaboration as they hep each other (sometimes older helping younger students and sometimes vice versa!)

The first day of class students were challenged to drive me through a maze using only single commands.  They had fun making me bump into things and declare "Command Failed. Please Try Again."  For the next two classes students had the opportunity to code in a variety of ways.  Students used Scratch Jr on the iPads, and explored a number of code-able robots including: Dash from WonderWorks, Sphero, BeeBot, Cubelets and Ozobot.  Students got to witness the direct response of their inputs and commands as the robots physically reacted to their code. 

Next we moved into the computer lab where students had the option to continue coding robots or to explore Hour of Code, Scratch or Minecraft. Students moved between options as they explored, collaborated and learned.  It has been a great six week class! 

I am thankful for the support of Part 2 for organizing this class, students and families for choosing this option for an after school activity, the Vermont Robot Rodeo for including RES in their robot borrowing program, and Mrs. Redford for her support.

Please let me know if you are interested in any of the tools I have mentioned....I am happy to encourage and support continued learning!

Student Driven Inquiry

What do you wonder?  Is there something you really want to learn about?  Be curious, be creative....school is a place to find answers to your questions!  

School is a place to learn about things you care about and new things you are just hearing about for the first time!

The above is the message that I want enrichment students to receive. One of my professional goals this year is to increase student inquiry and exploration of their curiosity in the enrichment classroom. In an effort to support this goal I will be working with second graders to support student driven inquiry projects.

We began these projects with a quick survey.  I asked students to think about whether they felt choice was important in their learning.  I asked them to think generally about the idea and then also to come up with some examples of times they have received full choice in their learning or no choice in their learning.  This survey gave us a starting point for our inquiry work together.  In general, students felt choice was important and had many reasons for enjoying choice in learning.  A few students mentioned that they preferred when the teacher selected their subjects, because sometimes they had a hard time choosing themselves and that they liked what teachers selected!  Students were very reflective in this process and it helped me to make sure that as we move forward we consider those students that desire additional structure as well as those that are ready to jump in!  This survey also supported my original thinking that students could benefit from inquiry projects and that many students are frustrated with learning things they already know, or that are in their words 'boring'.

Next I shared my process of wondering about a topic I am curious about (using robots in an educational setting).  I also shared a website called Wonderopolis ( many have used this in my classroom before) so students could see a variety of 'I wonder' questions. After we discussed the importance of our ideas and curiosity, students were asked to come up with at least three 'I wonder' statements.  Initially I was worried that students would struggle to come up with topics and ideas.....but I should not have been.  Their ideas were amazing!  

Before our next class I was able to group the wonders into bigger topics.  Many student questions had themes that I could pull together.  I had resources available for all of these topics.  In each class we ended up with about eight to ten major topics.  I challenged students to select a topic that they really wondered about and then to spend time with resources about this topic.  Students were told that they could work in groups or individually to develop a question based on their topic.  Some students stuck with the question they had written originally (even if it was not one of the more common themes, they could elect to continue following their own path), while others worked with the resources and a group to develop a new question that they all agreed would be worth investigating. Sometimes the resources drove their question formation, and sometimes the group discussion led to an idea.  Several students changed their topic selection after the initial selection, and after seeing what some groups were learning.  Students expressed some sadness in missing what others were learning about...until we had a discussion about the idea that we would all be learning from each other and sharing in the end! I took it as a great sign when students wanted assurance that they could learn something else next!!  

As we close out February, we have begun using our resources to find answers to our questions. Students are reading, listening, watching and then taking notes.  When we return to school in March we will begin thinking about how to share our new knowledge!

Notes for educators:

This process requires quite a bit of management and I have found several things to be helpful so far:

-A folder for each inquiry group to keep all of their information together

-Resources that can be listened to ( in particular when topics are not typical second grade reading material).  My current online resources include: Pebble Go ( funded by our school library), World Book Online, Wonderopolis (free website), You tube videos (curated and reviewed by me first), online articles from Scholastic and Highlights that include a text read aloud feature.

-Lots of books from the school library to spark questions and ideas AND to help find answers.

-Writing notes from the teacher to each group about what they should consider doing for their next task. This allows me to meet with small groups, and limits the number of students who have trouble self starting at the beginning of each class.

Scavenger Hunt!

During enrichment first graders have begun to explore the idea of mapping.  Mapping skills connect to our study of community.  Before we can become expert map makers, we need to practice reading maps.  This week students were given a map of the enrichment classroom and asked to search for clues around the classroom, when students found a clue they had to mark its location on their map. I was impressed with student's ability to read a map, and we had a lot of fun!