S.T.E.A.M.
Integrated Skills that Stay with Children for Life
During our S.T.E.A.M. classes and during regular class time, we plan plenty of lessons that integrate Science, Tech, Engineering, Art, and Math. All of our students move on with strong science and tech skills and a keen understanding of how to work well with their peers.
Grade 5: Battery Operated Cars
Each group designed a battery-operated car (including the body, the axle, and the wheels) out of recycled materials. The final race was the best part!
Grade 4: Electric Quiz Board
Students constructed a "question and answer board," wiring the back so a buzzer sounded or a light went off when correct answers were selected.
Grade 3: Testing Paper
The children folded paper into columns & experimented to see which kind of column would hold more weight (rectangular prism, triangular, cylindrical or prism).
Grade 2: Building a Tiny House
Students explored people's needs vs. wants in a home, and they discussed the challenges of living in a tiny house. They planned, designed, and built their dream tiny home.
Grade 1: Squishy Playdough Circuits
The children learned about simple electric circuits and the concepts of conducting and insulating materials. They built light-up sculptures using playdough, LED lights, and batteries.
Kindergarten: Coding
As a way to start learning coding, these young children created mazes, then directed the mouse through them using the arrows on the controller.
Grade 5: 3-D Printing
This student used 3-D software called Tincercad to design a board game based on the book A Long Walk to Water. The pieces he printed represent the characters.
Grade 4: Paper Mache Sculptures
Students chose an animal to research and sculpt with paper mache. The first step in creating their sculpture was to use the grid method to enlarge their image.
Grade 3: Making a Piano
One of the third-grader's favorite projects is using the MakeyMakey board as an interface between the computer and some play dough to make a working piano.
Grade 2: Rube Goldberg Machines
Students used their knowledge of simple machines, such as wheels, inclined planes, and wedges, to design a Rube Goldberg chain reaction machine.
Grade 1: Stop-motion Animation
Using animation, each small group retold the story they wrote by designing backgrounds and molding clay figures to represent characters in their story. They learned about sequencing, creating animated films, and expressing stories through digital storytelling.
Kindergarten: Shadow Puppets
Kindergarteners made their own hand puppets and used flashlights to explore how shadows are created from objects that block light. They discovered that shadows can be shrunk, enlarged and manipulated in various ways.
