Mrs. Fego's Google Site

Our Science/STEM program is Project Lead the Way Launch program (PLTW Launch). This program will engage students in hands-on activities, projects, and problems; empower them to solve real-world challenges; and inspire them to reimagine how they see them.

Through PLTW: Launch, designed for kindergarten through fifth grade, students become problem solvers. Students use structured approaches, like the engineering design process. They apply STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) knowledge, skills, and habits of mind, and discover that trying different approaches and solutions is an essential part of the learning process. As teachers and students learn and discover together, education becomes more engaging and meaningful for everyone.

PLTW Launch taps into students' exploratory nature, engages them in learning that feels like play, and encourages them to keep discovering - now and for years to come. Whether designing a compound machine to save a trapped tiger or building digital animations, students engage in critical and creative thinking, build teamwork skills, and learn to try and try again when faced with challenges.

PLTW Modules We Will Do This Year

Materials Science: Form and Function: Students research the variety of ways animals disperse seeds and pollinate plants. They expand their understanding of properties of matter as they consider the form and function involved in seed dispersal and pollination. Students are introduced to the design problem when Angelina, Mylo, and Suzi are tasked with starting a wildflower garden on an expansive plot outside of their school. To solve the design problem, students apply their knowledge and skills to design, build, test, and reflect on a device that mimics a way in which animals disperse seeds or pollinate plants.

Stability and Motion: Forces and Interactions: Students explore simple machines such as wheel and axles, levers, the inclined plane, and more. They investigate the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. Angelina, Mylo, and Suzi go on a field trip to the zoo and are faced with the design problem of how to rescue a trapped tiger. Students then apply their knowledge of forces and devise a way to rescue a heavy zoo animal while keeping it safe throughout the process.

Variation of Traits: Students investigate the differences between inherited genetic traits and traits learned or influenced by the environment. They explore the phenomena that offspring may express different traits than parents as they learn about dominant and recessive genes and also investigate how predicted outcomes compare to experimental results. Angelina, Mylo, and Suzi introduce the design problem when challenged to examine different traits found in three sets of seeds. Students then model how the gene for stem color is passed on and expressed among sample sets.

PLTW Modules We Will Do This Year

Scientific Inquiry Process

Engineering Design Process