Artistic Discipline(s): Paper craft, clay/sculpture, assemblage/collage, AI image generation

Take a look at our robots from their blueprint designs to the finished creations!

Students learned about engineering design and built their own robot with some sort of function, or purpose. Students journaled about a problem they wanted a robot to solve or what kind of robot they would like to make, along with its function. they drew a blueprint first and then turned the paper model into a prototype as they created it with boxes, clay, collage and assemblage. Over time, their robot provided a function and told a story visually through the use of AI and their robot stories. 

This project grew in part from a desire to add more content and discussion to our engineering project from last year which focused a lot on relationships between 2D and 3D shapes.  In 2024 Artificial Intelligence, social media addictions, and tech usage were all over the media and demanding a lot of consideration among grown ups in our world. As teachers were curious about how children felt growing up in a changing tech landscape. What do they understand about how technology shapes their perspectives? Is technology really stunting our growth? Do young children understand how the world is changing? The creation of robots felt like an approachable, age appropriate way to investigate our relationships to technology without adultifying or editorializing a poignant topic. 

Students loved this project as they were able to solve a problem they have with a robot’s assistance! They enjoyed bringing their blueprints to life as they created their robots. I wouldn’t say something did not work well, but they did need more time than originally anticipated to work on their robots. 

 learned to be flexible and use all the resources within the room. We would collaborate by reading a bit during the introduction, meeting on the rug at the beginning of each lesson, and then having Betsy lead the class through some engineering and robot slides to make it all come together. We also had various support staff in the room with us, so we made sure they helped out, too. It was definitely a collaborative effort with everyone! We were impressed with everything the students came up with as well. It is wonderful to see them in a new light. This can impact my teaching practice by making sure I implement different modalities into assessments and products that students produce. This helped me focus on the process and helped students see how important that is, not just the final product. 

I am realizing how beautifully brief intensive discussions can be supported through open ended engineering labs. 

This collaboration turns the traditional formative assessments upside down as it focuses more on students’ real-life application through product formation and focuses more on the process students go through to get to the final product. My approach to the assessment was definitely more informal and looked more at how each student went through the process of creating their robot. 

We set out to deepen our approach to STEAM education and incorporate more of the storytelling that we've enjoyed in previous years. We also  wanted to create a joyful environment for problem solving and discussing changes in technology and society in a way that centered children's observations instead of adult experiences. 

We both have not incorporated a lot of AI into our instruction, so that was something new we learned about while collaborating together. There were a few hiccups using it, but we were able to pivot, make clay sculptures to go with our AI stories and creations, and then implement the visuals within the students’ robots. 

We learned that, overall, even young children are brilliantly aware of the positive and negative ways that technology impacts us all.  Through a supportive, collaborative environment we hope everyone was able to consider new ideas and engage in telling their specific story through their art. 

Final Showcase day! Our students got to share their robots with the other 2nd grad classes. Some of us even had photocopies of our 1 page zines to share with friends. That's a very cool bonus way to use technology (photocopies) with a purpose (sharing)!