csaa steamlab

Stop motion animation is a creative way to integrate STEAM in our elementary classroom. Our students followed these steps to make their own movies: they storyboarded their ideas, wrote original scripts, created their own cut-out characters, and recorded their scenes using StopMotion Studio app. We are proud of their problem-solving, collaboration, and storytelling skills!

Students learn about how sound and vibrations are related through hands-on experiments and investigations. Following the NGSS standard : Plan and conduct investigations .,provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate. Student make cup phones to learn how vibrations can travel through objects , and also experimented with pool noodles to experience how sound travels through air. 

Students are learning how to code with Dash robots, an interactive and engaging devices that respond to voice, sound, and touch. Students use the  Blockly  app to make Dash move, light up, make sounds, and avoid obstacles. Student have fun and developing their computational thinking and problem-solving skills while learning to code!

Students design and build their own roller coasters. A fun way to learn about physics concepts such as energy, motion, and forces. NGSS standard: K-2-ETS1-2: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function. Students are challenged to build different shapes of tracks, such as loops, hills, or curves, and test how they affect the speed and direction of a marble.

Students build shade structures to apply their learning about how the sun warms the Earth and how some spaces can become extremely  hot because there is no shade.  NGSS standard: K-PS3-2: Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area. Students used recycled objects such as drinking straws, paper plates, and coffee filters to create small structures that can block the sun. They used a simple thermometer to measure the temperature of the ground and compare it to the temperature under their shade structures. Students collect data and observations to improve their designs and make their shade structures more effective.

Students can learn about circuits by building a series and parallel circuits with foam board, paper clips, brads, wire, batteries, and lights. 

NGSS standard is 4-PS3-2: energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

NGSS standard is 5-PS1-3:identify materials based on their properties, student identify materials to connect the battery and the lights and measure their resistance.  Students also learn to  classify the materials as conductors or insulators.

Students learned about the properties of static electricity. They explore how electric charges can build up and move between objects. 

NGSS standard :4-PS3-2: Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place. Students use objects such as balloons, packing peanuts, soft fabric, tissue paper, and PVC tubes to create and test static electricity. They observed how rubbing the PVC tube with different materials can transfer electric charges and make the tube attract or repel other objects. They can also experiment with their clothing and hair and see how they are affected by static electricity.

Students learn about plants and their structures by making garden beds. 

NGSS standard is 4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. Students can investigate how plant parts help them get water, nutrients, sunlight, and pollination. 

NGSS standard is 5-LS2-1: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment. Students can explore how the soil, water, air, and organisms in their garden beds cycle matter and energy.