Students in David Lockett’s STEM classes at Edward W. Bok Academy in Lake Wales, Florida, demonstrate to Duke Energy Business Energy Manager/Senior Energy Engineer Derick Farfan a display they created for the company that illustrates their knowledge of energy concepts. Photo courtesy of David Lockett
How can teachers help students explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career paths? One way is to have them do a project with a local business, according to David Lockett, STEM teacher at Edward W. Bok Academy in Lake Wales, Florida. With funding from the Polk Education Foundation of Bartow, Florida, and a Motorola Solutions Foundation Technology and Engineering Education Grant, Lockett’s Duke Energy Project was “a career workforce development” project “that was capped with a visit to” the Walt Disney World Solar Facility in Orlando, he explains. The five-megawatt solar farm is part of an agreement allowing Duke Energy to own and operate the farm on Disney World’s land. In return, the farm provides solar power to Disney World.
“The project focused on the different types of energy produced in Florida,” says Lockett. The Motorola grant guidelines required the inclusion of public safety elements, vocational skills, and engineering and/or information technology concepts. “I went for both,” he notes. “I wanted students to understand more about how electricity is provided and generated to the area, interact with diverse engineers in the field, and [hear from] scientists and other Duke Energy speakers”—including some of the students’ parents who work there—“about the range of energy careers.” he explains.
“No one had approached [Duke Energy] from the renewable energy aspect. I wanted to have students more deeply understand it than they could from just one class visit there,” says Lockett. His students spent about 20 hours either visiting Duke Energy or hearing from its employees when they visited Bok Academy.
Lockett created hands-on STEM learning activities to increase students’ awareness of energy-related STEM careers. For example, his students built solar cars and solar robots, designed and tested wind turbines, did coding projects, designed circuits, and built miniature houses to show how electricity travels. As a culminating project, his students created a display showing how electricity is supplied to a miniature house they built and demonstrating their knowledge of renewable versus nonrenewable resources, closed and open circuits, the importance of solar power, and “the benefits and challenges in technology that play a role in our energy system,” says Lockett. Duke Energy plans to show the display to other visiting schools, he adds.
“My students said, ‘Now we understand why you drive a hybrid car,’” Lockett relates. The project “increased their interest in different forms of energy and why technology has to be efficient.”
Lockett and his students then visited the Walt Disney World Solar Facility to discover “where Disney gets all the power for its operations,” he adds. “We were the first school group to visit there. It was not a glamorous trip, but it was very helpful” in increasing their understanding of how solar panels work. “After the trip, the students wanted to talk to their parents about getting solar panels on their homes,” he recalls.
The project informed his students about a myriad of careers: line workers, coding technicians, engineers, engineering technologists, cybersecurity engineers, information technology software analysts, and data science consultants. Lockett told students, “Every worker has a skill set or interest to lead them into a career path…Try it all, and see what you like best.”
Real-World Exposure
“I help students find their passion by exposing them to as many opportunities as possible” to connect with local businesses, says Peter Suchmann, coordinator of the Science Research Program for Grades 9 and 10 at North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck, New York. “There’s a lot of industry on Long Island.”
For example, Suchmann chooses a group of students to attend an open house at Lifetime Brands, a kitchen product company headquartered in Garden City, New York, to learn about the company’s marketing, manufacturing, and packaging operations. Before the visit, Suchmann says he and his students “discuss the invention process for new and exciting kitchen gadgets. I hold a contest for students to come up with new kitchen gadgets, and the most developed ideas get pitched to [Lifetime Brands] executives.” He notes that “preparing a 30-second elevator pitch is tough and a good skill for ninth graders,” and he works with them on “body language, eye contact, and bubbling enthusiasm.”
At company headquarters, “we meet with their [executives] and actually discuss ideas the kids come up with for new products, and then we visit the showcase floor and study new products that have been successful. It is a great opportunity to see the 3-D printers used to make new prototypes and some of the new products that might actually make it to the market,” he relates.
Some of Suchmann’s students are working with the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition as part of a student science fellowship. “Two of my students took over [the coalition’s] newsletter…and updated it, and made it much better,” using their writing and computer science skills, he reports. “They talk to their teachers about topics to be able to explain them, and help summarize [cancer] research for a general audience…In this world of fake science news, science communication is very important.”
He points out that students chosen for this fellowship have presented their work at science competitions and have gone on “to top labs in the Northeast to work on cancer prevention.”
Suchmann’s students have also participated in focus groups for Brainly, an international social learning and tutoring network for high school students. “I answered their call for teachers [to have students provide input on the website]. On Brainly, people are ranked by how many questions they answer [accurately],” he explains. “They want students to have their questions answered by teachers and students who know the material.”
His students “gave feedback on the platform and its potential use by American students. My students each earned $20 for their focus group experience,” Suchmann reports.
He says the focus for his school and his class is “internships lead to career tracks.” By connecting his students with businesses, some have landed internships with those companies that ultimately can lead to employment.
What if you could challenge your kindergartners to create a mini roller coaster as an entry point to understanding the physics of motion? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!
What if you could challenge your kindergartners to create a mini roller coaster as an entry point to understanding the physics of motion? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!
Late last month the House Education and Labor Committee passed H.R. 4674, the Democratic bill to revise the Higher Education Act (HEA). The bill, titled the College Affordability Act, passed on a party-line vote of 28 to 22, with all Democrats voting for the bill and all Republicans voting against it, criticizing the overall increase in federal spending on higher education contained in the bill.
The legislation calls for implementing tuition-free community college, increasing Pell Grants and other forms of student aid, expanding public service loan forgiveness and allowing existing federal student borrowers to lower their interest rate. More here.
The 1,212-page bill will go on to the full House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass sometime later this Fall.
Congress Kicks the Appropriations Can Down the Road to Dec. 20
Congressional leaders have pegged December 20 as the next deadline for government funding after the current stopgap expires on November 21. The House of Representatives plans to pass a new continuing resolution before funding runs out at midnight on Nov. 21 to avert a government shutdown. Funding for key issues, including the President’s border wall, remain to be resolved. Read more here.
House Science Committee Passes Rural STEM Education Bill
Last week the House Science Committee marked up and passed H.R. 4979, the Rural STEM Education Act. The bi-partisan bill, which NSTA supports, authorizes NSF grants for R&D for rural students in STEM; authorizes NSF grants on evaluating the use of online courses for STEM in rural communities; directs a National Academies study on rural STEM education and workforce development, including the impact of the scarcity of broadband connectivity, and more.
President Trump Reestablishes President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
On Oct. 22, President Trump issued an executive order reconstituting the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and appointed seven of its members. A White House press release noted PCAST will ultimately have 16 members in total and that more members will be announced in the future.
The role of the council is to advise the White House and conduct studies on its behalf. Its members are comprised of volunteer experts from outside the federal government. Kelvin Droegemeier, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will serve ex officio as the chair and 17th member of PCAST.
OSTP Releases STEM Ed Progress Report
As you recall last year the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), through the Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM), developed a five-year “North Star” plan, which was released in December 2018. Subsequently, CoSTEM has been coordinating with Federal agencies to implement this plan and last month OSTP released a progress report that provides an update on those activities. Read the report here.
Stay tuned, and watch for more updates in future issues of NSTA Express.
Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director of Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. Reach her via e-mail at jpeterson@nsta.org or via Twitter at @stemedadvocate.
The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.
If a student receives a bad test score, how do you interpret it? Would you allow the student to retake a modified version of the test? — B. , Ohio
There are many possible interpretations of a poor score on a test.
Knowing your students and developing an assessment practice in your classroom that gives you and your students constant feedback on performance is essential to successful teaching. A quick look at your gradebook should easily identify a poor test score as an anomaly or a fair assessment.
If it is an anomaly, you should consider if the student was ill or missed some work. Do you know if events outside school could be a factor? Are things like test anxiety and organizational difficulties possible concerns? Did the student simply need more time?
Reflect on your role: Were the questions unexpected or confusing? Was the test poorly scheduled? Was there ample time to prepare? Did you give adequate feedback on returned work?
Students need to learn how to prepare for and take a test. Give them simple tips like bypassing difficult questions until later, pacing themselves, and that erasing is a waste of time—they should simply strike through passages they changed (you may want to have extra copies of the test or blank paper available). Suggest how to organize themselves and plan their study time. Encourage re-writing notes, and anticipating questions.
I would certainly allow the student a second attempt. Don’t just give another date and general encouragement to study more. Arrange for some remedial work or one-on-one time. Informing the parents can shed light on the issue and will allow them to support their child’s preparation. Consider having the student only retake missed questions or modifying the format.
What if you could challenge your first graders to create instruments they can play in their own “Show Me the Waves” musical show? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!
What if you could challenge your first graders to create instruments they can play in their own “Show Me the Waves” musical show? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!
Experts Agree: Connecting STEM Learning and Teaching Works!
On December 7, NSTA is offering a virtual conference designed to bring together some of the best thinkers in the field focused on learning and teaching by connecting in-school and out-of-school STEM experiences.
Why create collaborative STEM experiences? Because no one school, museum, organization, camp, or after-school program can give students and teachers the space, resources, and experiences that will motivate and challenge participants the way you can when school and outside groups work together. That’s why blended STEM learning experiences that connect in-school and out-of-school learning are a key recommendation in the recently released America’s Strategy for STEM Education.*
How Do You Start a Connected STEM Program?
Join NSTA for a virtual conference (Connecting In-school and Out-of-school STEM Learning and Teaching) to meet fellow teachers, STEM program managers, NSTA’s President, NSTA’s Executive Director, authors, and other experts in the field. Learn how they have created programs, what they recommend for those just getting started, where to find collaborators and funding, and ways to gain support for your ideas. Best of all, as you interact with presenters and fellow attendees during this conference, you’ll be expanding your network and meet people who you can count on for help along the way!
Why Learning and Teaching?
Teaching and learning are closely correlated, so good teachers generally make good learners, and vice versa. Throughout this virtual conference, participants will get a chance to see models of both roles, and learn to engage students with diverse learning styles. This matters because understanding how to involve all stakeholders, gain their attention, and keep them invested is critical for connecting in-school and out-of-school learning. And this type of collaboration will be of long-term importance to students (and to society in general), because it models and teaches the skills and working styles that will be needed for jobs of the future (the very near future).
And just as there are diverse learning styles, educators have diverse needs. Here are just a few of the reasons people tell us they sign up for virtual conferences:
“I am a neophyte to STEM, but hope to implement a STEM club after school.”—Laura B.
“[I want to] improve STEM and engage more students in STEM. “—Donald B.
“NSTA Virtual Conferences are a wonderful way to do amazing Professional Development from the comfort of home.”—Dorothy G.
“My biggest challenges have been projects that students are engaged in and ideas for k-2 students.”—Jeremy M.
“We are doing quite a bit of STEM work in our region and part of my job is working with administrators and teachers, district and community to help them get STEM education implementation going in our region.”—Georgia B.
Dorothy G. mentioned one of her favorite things about NSTA virtual conferences (comfort), so it’s worth noting that participants can log on from anywhere with an internet connection and interact with presenters and educators from across the country.
On December 7, NSTA is offering a virtual conference designed to bring together some of the best thinkers in the field focused on learning and teaching by connecting in-school and out-of-school STEM experiences.
Brief
Defining and Measuring STEM Identity and Interest in STEM Learning
By Jamie Bell, Kevin Crowley, Martin Storksdieck, John Besley, Matthew A. Cannady, Amy Grack Nelson, Tina Phillips, Kelly Riedinger, and Melissa Ballard
A growing number of educators are focused on increasing students’ interest in and developing their identity in relation to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as an intended outcome of their out-of-school activities and programs.
In everyday language, one might define identity as the way that people answer questions such as: “Who do I think I am, or who can I be? Where do I belong? How do I think other people see me?” People who are developing identities related to STEM will navigate questions such as these along the way.
Interest is a complex concept to define; because the term is used in everyday language, it can be laden with personal meanings. But, researchers generally agree that interest can be described as a long-term pattern of choices and pursuits, and has a multidimensional structure that includes affective, intellectual, and social components.
An evolving field of research
The landmark National Research Council report, Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits (2009) posited that learners in informal environments “experience excitement, interest, and motivation to learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world” and that informal learning experiences position participants to “think about themselves as science learners and develop an identity as someone who knows about, uses and sometimes contributes to science.”
Over the past 10 years, researchers across STEM education, the learning sciences, social psychology, and science communication have been working to understand and build models of STEM interest and identity, and how out-of-school education experiences foster these constructs. The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)’s Evaluation and Measurement Task Force recently conducted a series of interviews with 23 experts to take a snapshot of current research and thinking around these concepts. For each expert we interviewed, you can find a short video clip, interview highlights, and the full interview transcript online. There are also summary documents for identity and interest. Below are some highlights of what we learned.
Identity
When people engage with STEM, where they are on a continuum of STEM identity influences their expectations of how interesting and successful the experience will be. If they find an activity to be engaging and satisfying, the experience may strengthen their STEM identity, leading to a positive feedback loop that can reinforce ongoing participation and learning. Conversely, when learners have less engaging or unsuccessful experiences, a negative feedback loop can result—and might erode a developing STEM identity and make it less likely a learner will choose to participate in related activities in the future.
Across the interviews, there were varied opinions regarding whether identity can actually be measured or observed. Some researchers noted that a variety of data collection strategies can provide some evidence of aspects of an individual’s identity, including open-ended interviews, observations of learners, long-term ethnographic studies, implicit association tests, or self-report surveys. Several of the interviewees reminded us that these data collection efforts capture only a snapshot of an individual’s identity in a moment and a context.
Interest
Several researchers we spoke with, who work in informal STEM education, use Hidi and Renninger’s Four-Phase Model of Interest Development (2010), in which initial “triggered situational interest,” with sufficient support, becomes “maintained situational interest,” developing over time into “emerging individual interest” and ultimately “well-developed individual interest.”
We also heard insights such as the importance of taking into account historical and cultural factors that affect interest development in different populations, and that building and supporting ecosystems with multiple, varied, and connected opportunities for exposure and engagement are key for STEM interest to take hold. Some researchers don’t use the term “interest,” and instead used terms such as “preference” or “choice” to describe the same or similar phenomena. Researchers studying what they call the “activation” of learners conceptualize interest as consisting of (at least) two dimensions: fascination and value.
Interest is often measured using surveys that directly ask individuals to rate their preference for a particular topic or activity type. However, many researchers continue to debate self-reports—whether they are objective, how robust they are over time and within different contexts, and how much they can actually tell us about an individual’s interest. One alternative to using surveys is conducting open-ended interviews that reveal a more nuanced picture of the role of interest in learning, or ethnographic studies that track the development or loss of interest over time. Some researchers are studying “family interest pathways” by piloting strategies such as video observations, family-created journals, and artifacts.
More resources
In August 2019, CAISE hosted a webinar during which our task force members highlighted the perspectives from the interviews that they found most striking. We also responded to audience questions related to capturing longitudinal outcomes, and whether one should be thinking about a more generalized STEM identity or interest, or if discipline-specific measures are important to consider. Watch the recording on our YouTube channel and download the presentation slides.
Jamie Bell (jbell@informalscience.org) is project director and principal investigator at the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education in Washington, DC. Kevin Crowley (crowleyk@pitt.edu) is professor of learning sciences and policy at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and co–principal investigator at the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education in Washington, DC. Martin Storksdieck (storksdieck@oregonstate.edu) is director of the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, and co–principal investigator at the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education in Washington, DC. John Besley (jbesley@msu.edu) is professor of public relations and advertising at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Matthew A. Cannady (mcannady@berkeley.edu) is research group director at The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, in Berkeley, California. Amy Grack Nelson (agnelson@smm.org) is evaluation and research manager at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tina Phillips (cbp6@cornell.edu) is evaluation program manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. Kelly Riedinger (kelly.riedinger@oregonstate.edu) is senior researcher at the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Melissa Ballard (mballard@informalscience.org) is communications and community manager at the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education in Washington, DC.
How do you explain to your students that what you’re teaching is important even if there is no obvious real-world application? — B., Ohio
I’m sure every teacher has heard this refrain!
I found that students question what we teach when it is dull and repetitive. So, trying different strategies may work.
You can appeal to them on a philosophical level: explain to them that most of us don’t know what may be personally useful n the future.
The history of science is full of discoveries that were ahead of their time. It took time and the right people to reveal the importance or usefulness of that knowledge. Classic stories you can relate to your students: Michael Faraday and electromagnetism; Wilhelm Roentgen and X-rays; Alexander Flemming and penicillin; and many more.
My favorite is Christian Doppler who, in 1847, studied and determined why sound coming towards you is higher pitched than when it moves away from you (think race cars). Twenty years later astronomers discovered that the light followed the “Doppler Effect” and they could identify stars moving away or toward our solar system. In 1929, Edwin Hubble’s observations of galaxies indicated that they were all moving away from each other at ever-increasing velocity. This is the basis for the “Big Bang” theory, part of our current model of the universe. From Doppler’s curiosity about how train whistles change pitch we now have the current theory of the cosmos!
As a last resort, you can always just say the people who write curriculum felt it was important to understand. They can always complain to the government.
Hope this helps!
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/STScI Hubble Deep Field Team
According to Marc Schulman, executive director of the USA Science and Engineering Festival (USASEF), “the modern era of science festivals…was kicked into gear” when the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a grant to four institutions in 2009 to support the creation of three science festivals modeled on the Cambridge Science Festival: one each in the San Francisco Bay area and San Diego, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“Science festivals are really about having a spot for science on the cultural calendar, the cultural stage,” asserts Ben Wiehe, manager of the Science Festival Alliance (SFA) at MIT. “They’re about bringing people together around science and technology and a shared identity of how science makes us who we are.” Because the best science festivals are “extremely responsive to cultural geography,” Wiehe describes his role at SFA as helping members consider what’s important to their communities and form goals around that, rather than focusing on an institution’s own outreach goals. He advises organizers to reflect on “what will give [attendees] new memorable, fresh experiences.…This is ultimately about trying to create a community-wide event. You have to see how people come together in your community, what gives them a sense of pride, how they come together for work or play.” He asks them, “What’s a good inside joke for your area?”
SFA, which grew out of the original NSF grant, now includes 63 member festivals. Many of SFA’s members started with grants from the alliance’s Science Festival Accelerator, which provides professional development and up to $10,000 in matching funds to “new or significantly expanded festival initiatives that focus on areas or communities with relatively small resource space,” Wiehe explains, noting that 2019 Accelerator applications are being accepted through December 2.
Students participate in hands-on activities at the 2018 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Science Expo, part of the North Carolina Science Festival. Photo courtesy of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
Director Jonathan Frederick says he considers the North Carolina Science Festival as erecting “a science circus tent over the state,” with events at more than 250 K–12 schools, and 150 public event partners producing more than 400 events statewide. “We’re trying to connect science to everyday life,” he says. “Our audience is the 10+ million people of North Carolina.” Public events range from urban geology hikes to skywatching at rooftop restaurants to art conservation programs focused on chemistry and biochemistry at museums.
“We have a science night program, with the ambition to be in every elementary school in the state. Each year we send out boxes of supplies [from a library of 40 activities],” Frederick says. Each school receives supplies for 10 different stations and 200 participants. “Some schools in more rural areas may only have 60 people show up; they use the rest of the supplies at the schools. Others have 600 people show up; they use our kits as a ‘starter pack’ and go from there.”
In addition, the festival includes events at university campuses and science centers, such as a science street fair at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the Gravity Games sponsored by Google and Appalachian State University.
The ninth Wisconsin Science Festival (WSF) was held in October. “We have seen tremendous growth in organic interest, the number of communities interested in participating,” says Laura Heisler, cofounder and director. “The very first year, we kept it within Madison;…the expansion became organic with different organizations. Communities across Wisconsin have embraced it…We share resources, advice, and contacts.”
Rather than planning events for various communities, Heisler says her group invites organizers at the community level to share what they’re doing and the science connection, and WSF shares the events on their website and social media and provides T-shirts, a banner, and other promotional items. When they “hit a critical mass” in an area, WSF will buy local advertising to support the events.
WSF also participates in EvalFest, a five-year study of 25 science festivals to develop evaluation tools. “We’ve learned there is great value when people interact with scientists. People don’t realize how much science is in their state,” says Heisler, who is excited to see the results of the study, expected to be completed this year.
A National Stage
“There are different styles of festivals,” says USASEF’s Schulman. Many are connected to specific institutions or last for two weeks or longer with events spread across a large area, attracting local or regional audiences. “Our model is a little different…Ours attracts people from across the country…We’re trying to be like a lightning bolt. Everything you see at [the USASEF] is what you could see at others if you were go to all their events,” he contends. The sixth USASEF will be held April 23–26, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
Held every other year, the four-day USASEF features “650 organizations including nonprofits, [130] government agencies, colleges and universities, professional societies, and corporations,” many of which bring chemists, engineers, and other STEM professionals from facilities around the country. Exhibitors are arranged in “topical pavilions” such as national security, health and medical, and exploration. “We try to showcase the diversity in [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] STEM jobs and STEM careers. We’re trying to cover the gamut of what STEM jobs look like—including skilled trades/advanced manufacturing,” says Schulman. “We’re constantly trying to push boundaries of what we would consider a STEM career.”
On the first day, USASEF hosts X-STEM, which Schulman describes as “a TED talk” for about 4,000 middle and high school students. “Sneak Peek Friday” is reserved for K–12 school groups, with the final two days open to the public. The 2018 festival drew 375,000 attendees on the final three days, leading Schulman to conclude “we’re at capacity…Booths have 30,000–40,000 people come through.”
After witnessing attendees struggling to reach various exhibitors due to the large crowd, USASEF will add a registration system for the 2020 festival. “It’s not good for attendees when it’s too crowded. They can’t get to what they want to see. It’s not good for organizations; they can’t talk to everyone when they’re jammed up,” Schulman says. A nominal fee will be charged for attendees older than 18; registration for attendees younger than 18 will be free.
While the impact is hard to measure, Schulman is confident science festivals are an important “response to the lack of STEM education in American public schools.” He explains, “I have a science event that gets 300,000 people…Some debate if a festival is a good investment. I tell people, if [festivals] are not working, why are 300,000 people here; 50,000 people [at other science festivals]? It does work; I just can’t give metrics as to how it works.”
According to Marc Schulman, executive director of the USA Science and Engineering Festival (USASEF), “the modern era of science festivals…was kicked into gear” when the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a grant to four institutions in 2009 to support the creation of three science festivals modeled on the Cambridge Science Festival: one each in the San Francisco Bay area and San Diego, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Street closures and high noise levels from construction on or near school grounds or other early childhood programs may disrupt the daily routine. Using the engineering habit of mind of optimism, defined as “a world view in which possibilities and opportunities can be found in every challenge and an understanding that technology can be improved” (Katehi et al., 2009, p. 152) educators at the Clarendon Child Care Center, Kathy Connell, Sarah Abu-El-Hawa, and Carly Gertler used the occasion of children’s interest in the cranes at the on-going construction to bring materials out to the playground for children to create their own cranes in 2-D and 3-D representations.
Welcome Kathy, Sarah, and Carly!
Our inspiration for this project presented itself in the construction site diagonally across the street from our playground. Each day as we walked to the playground our group of 16 four and five year-olds noticed the cranes and commented on their presence along with their characteristics. The children talked about how high the cranes stood, how the jibs extend out further from the site—even above the playground, the flapping flags at the ends of the jibs, and the hoists attached to the jibs that lifted building material from the flatbed trailers parked on the streets onto the worksite.
Kathy set out a short row of chairs on the playground and clipboards with paper and markers. The children accepted this invitation and drew their impressions of the cranes. We also set out Mobilo manipulatives on the picnic table and children built their own versions of cranes. By printing with paint using the Mobilo shapes children created 2-dimensional cranes. Photos of cranes by Kathy’s father contributed information on other types of cranes.
Photos by the teachers at Clarendon Child Care Center.
The next day we provided a straws and star connection building set and children continued to “build up.” Building with magnetic tiles in the morning sun on days that followed extended the children’s understanding of how large structures are made of smaller units. The light shining through the tiles cast jewel-toned shadow shapes surprising the children and added to their design. In discussion with the construction site manager teachers helped children think about the height of the crane by figuring out how many children would need to stand head-to-feet to be the same height as the (more than 200 foot tall) crane.
The teachers made the children’s work visible to their families, other classes, and the children themselves by creating a documentation panel on the wall. (The classes show their creativity in another way–the names they choose for themselves!) The children’s documentation shows that some are aware of the diagonal cross pieces in the jib and tower. I wonder if sometime they will explore the use of diagonals and triangles in structures, perhaps using K’nex or other building materials.
Join
If a student receives a bad test score, how do you interpret it? Would you allow the student to retake a modified version of the test?
