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Learners benefit from a formal structure of within-school and extracurricular opportunities to extenD STEM learning.
Learners benefit from a formal structure of within-school and extracurricular opportunities to extenD STEM learning.
After School, Away From School, In School, & At Home Extracurricular STEM
Cahaba Elementary School consistently provides a variety of STEM-specific extracurricular and extended day opportunities for learners after school, away from school, in school, and at home. These extracurricular experiences ensure that learners have multiple formal, age-appropriate opportunities to engage with STEM practitioners, community experts, and our STEM partners.
EXTRACURRICULAR AFTERSCHOOL STEM
EXTRACURRICULAR AFTERSCHOOL STEM
MATH TEAM, SCIENCE OLYMPIAD, ALABAMA ARCHITECTS
Cahaba Elementary School provides many ways for students to extend their STEM experiences. One way we do this is through extracurricular STEM activities. Some of these activities include Math Team, Science Olympiad, and Alabama Architects. These after school STEM activities give students an opportunity to engage with STEM practitioners, community experts, and/or other STEM partners.
MATH TEAM
We created a math team just one year after we opened our doors in 2016. We wanted to create an opportunity for students who love math and want to sharpen and extend what they are learning in the classroom in a competitive setting. We have 4th and 5th grade math teams. Our 5th grade math teams compete in the Perennial Math competitions and place every year. We have around 15-20 students on the math team, which is around 25% of the 5th graders at Cahaba. Cahaba Elementary Math Team is for students who enjoy exploring & having fun with mathematics. Members are students who are at or above grade level and enjoy competing with other students. Math Team practices include solving & discussing math problems to prepare for competitions throughout the school year. Our mission is to provide a mathematical experience beyond the classroom for interested students and expose them to existing mathematical talent outside of Cahaba.
Math team has a tremendous impact on students who are involved. When students enter the 5th grade, we enter their end of the year 4th grade standardized testing scores into a chart. After we receive their 5th grade standardized testing scores at the end of the year, we enter those scores into the spreadsheet and discuss the impact of Math Club. Almost every student’s percentile increased, and many students percentiles significantly increased. This data informs us that Math team has a strong impact on student growth, so we will continue to offer math team every year.
Math Team Gallery
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SCIENCE OLYMPIAD
Another after school experience that we offer is Science Olympiad. Science Olympiad is a national program founded in 1984 that our school participates in with schools from around Alabama. We decided to offer Science Olympiad as an after school STEM experience as an enrichment opportunity for those students interested in Science. Science Olympiad touches every letter in STEM, from life science to manufacturing to engineering. Our participants perform the types of interpretation, design, application and assessment that professional scientists do every day in the field, lab, or policy board room. On average, we select 24 students from 4th and 5th grade applicants to be in Science Olympiad and 2 teams of 3 - 6 of these students are selected for competitions. Students participate in weekly meetings after school, along with opportunities to do activities online.
Science Olympiad Carousel of Pictures
Science Olympiad students show perseverance and dedication. They commit to practices and coaching most of the year so that they can cross train for a variety of events in their skill set. There are 22 Events that cover the topics of physical, chemical, and earth sciences. Some of these activities include an egg drop challenge, bridge building, all about space, and weather. Science Olympiad gives students an avenue for cross-curricular and connected student learning. Science Olympiad supports our school's STEM goals by deep diving into STEM content and providing opportunities to explore college and career pathways, offering student-led hands-on learning, assisted by coaches and mentors, engaging students in challenging afterschool enrichment aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and Career and Technical Education goals, and helps students develop soft skills including communication, teamwork, leadership and grit. Over the years, Science Olympiad has grown in popularity. About 30% of 4th and 5th graders applied for Science Olympiad this year.
ALABAMA ARCHITECTS
Our art teacher involves our students in the Alabama Architects school outreach program called dreamARCHITECTURE. This program holds an annual architectural design competition with different themes in which elementary school students demonstrate their creativity. Each year our teacher sends in one student's design. In 2018, one of our students, Kathleen Bell won an honorable mention for her, "Human Body Theme Park" design.
EXTRACURRICULAR AWAY FROM SCHOOL STEM
EXTRACURRICULAR AWAY FROM SCHOOL STEM
FIELD TRIPS
Another way that Cahaba extends students' STEM experiences beyond content in the classroom is through STEM-related field trips.
Old Baker Farm Field Trip
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KINDERGARTEN FIELD TRIP - THE OLD BAKER FARM
Students in Kindergarten go on a field trip to the Old Baker Farm in Shelby County. On this field trip Kindergarten students learn about the characteristics of living things and identify the similarities and differences in plants and animals. They can physically see the ways in which people and animals change the environment in order to provide for their needs. Students point out the ways animal parents and their offspring interact. Teachers introduce the concept of life cycles with animal families and explain how seeds grow into plants. Students learn about the evolution of farm technologies and discuss what innovations took place by comparing and contrasting early technologies like plows and the first tractors, to modern farming vehicles and equipment. Students come to understand where food comes from and they come to see that animals need food and water to survive. They also get to meet real farmers and come to understand that farmers use math and science to do their jobs. Students, teachers, and parents return with new insight into the world of farming and its impact on the food and clothing industry.
KINDERGARTEN FIELD TRIP - BOTANICAL GARDENS
Our Kindergarten Field Trip to the Botanical Gardens is a wonderful example of collaboration between our teachers and stakeholders. When the Botanical Gardens did not offer the type of field trip our Kindergarten teachers wanted for our students, Kindergarten teacher, Angela Shorter, wrote a proposal and presented it to the Botanical Gardens. Mrs. Shorter and the Botanical Gardens Education Department collaborated together and now the field trip she proposed is offered to all schools who visit the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. This field trip has become the most popular trip for the Gardens.
In this field trip, children are guided through the gardens in search of pollinators using hand lenses and a recording sheet to record the pollinators they find and which flowers they are found on. The guide reads a book about plants and pollinators to give the children some background on the importance of pollinators to our world. The students get hands on experience observing pollinators and they note which types and colors of plants or flowers the pollinators are drawn to.
Botanical Gardens Field Trip
McWane Center Field Trip
1st GRADE FIELD TRIP - THE MCWANE CENTER
First grade teachers have a plethora of reasons for choosing the McWane Center for their field trip. The McWane Center is a science center that provides students real hands-on and real-world experiences through activities and exhibits that address every science standard. Exhibits allowed students to see and learn about animals, experiment with light and sound, investigate movement and simple machines, and learn about the weather and the technologies used to report it.
2nd GRADE FIELD TRIP - RICKWOOD CAVERNS
Surrounded by forests, Rickwood Caverns State Park is a giant cave with formations that are over 260 million years old. These caverns were created by water from an ocean bed that was there millions of years ago. The park offers tours of the cave that go 175 feet underground. There is also fossil investigations, gemstone mining, hiking trails, a wooden wall maze, and a playground. The Rickwood Caverns field trip allows students to investigate the forest biome and cave landform. Students see the impact of Earth’s events over long periods of time. They discuss cave animals, their characteristics, and why they have those characteristics. As students pan for gemstones, teachers point out the connection between earth and industry by discussing the rock cycle, the mining industry, and the role of the mining industry in manufacturing and construction. This field trip is a culmination embodying many 2nd grade standards.
3rd GRADE FIELD TRIP - TOP GOLF
The third grade classes at Cahaba travel to Top Golf to further their understanding of physics and force and motion through hands-on, real world experience. The experience begins when a professional golf instructor teaches the students about velocity, direction, speed, and trajectory. Then students get a chance to apply their knowledge as they golf. As teachers observed students hitting the ball, they asked the students questions that required students to explain the shot they made was affected by the various force and motion components. This gave students the opportunity to practice scientific vocabulary usage in context and allowed them to see that what they were learning was not only relevant, but useful in the professional world.
Top Golf Field Trip
Cahaba River Field Trip
4th GRADE FIELD TRIP - CAHABA RIVER
The Cahaba River is one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the world and is recognized internationally as a critical river ecosystem. The Cahaba River Society offers an Environmental education field trip on the Cahaba River in which students do a macroinvertebrate and fish study. They classify different types, discuss the role they play in the river’s ecosystem, and learn about what certain macroinvertebrates presence or absence in the ecosystem says about the health of the river. The river study provides students with real-world connections to what they are learning to meet 4th grade science standards. As nature specialists are pointing out species in the ecosystem, they discuss how the internal and external structures of plants and animals function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. Students investigate different ways animals of the ecosystem receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond. Students also learn that Cahaba is a major drinking water source for our area. They come to understand the human-environmental connection when they learn that healthy ecosystems impact the quality of drinking water and humans impact the health of the ecosystem.
4th GRADE FIELD TRIP - SPACE AND ROCKET CENTER
Our 4th graders also go on a field trip to the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Students learned about rockets at the Davidson Center, explored NASA’s Payload Operations Integration Center and learned how scientists and engineers on Earth help astronauts do experiments on the International Space Station. They learned about the food astronauts eat in space, got to see models of their sleeping quarters, and learned about the work they do on the space station. Students even got to experience G force when they rode the G Force and moon shot simulators. After the tour, students took part in a lab where they engineered a rocket out of given materials, and then had a contest to see which rocket could be shot the highest and furthest. The Space and Rocket Center field trip allows students to connect what they learn in class about gravitational force to the real world. They also come to see STEM interdisciplinary connections in the real world as they design and construct a rocket.
EXTRACURRICULAR IN-SCHOOL STEM
EXTRACURRICULAR IN-SCHOOL STEM
EnRICH PROGRAM
One of our STEM extracurricular opportunities of which we are most proud is our STEM enrichment program during school from 2:00 - 3:00 Monday - Wednesday. Our Enrichment program is called EnRich. It stands for engage, reinforce, inspire, and challenge. The program was created so that students could choose avenues for free inquiry that interest them and expand their knowledge and skills. All grades participate in EnRich. Kindergarten - 2nd grades participate in their own classrooms for EnRich. 3rd - 5th graders choose courses in which they leave the classroom to attend. Students watch an advertisement about all the different EnRich courses that will be offered that year. Students pick their top three choices and will get to participate in one to two of those choices depending on the number of courses we were able to offer. We have had many different STEM based EnRich courses offered throughout the years. Some experiences like Coding Innovations and Design Lab were so popular that they were integrated into the STEM Lab curriculum for a whole grade level. Other great courses like Cahaba MD, TedEd, Trussville360, and Girls Who Code were discontinued when the facilitating teachers moved away. Two STEM based EnRich Courses that have been offered for several years now are Next Top Firm and Dream Vacation.
NEXT TOP FIRM
In the Next Top Firm experience, students learn about the advertising business and form their own ad firms. A real Trussville business comes to our school seeking an ad firm to create an ad campaign for their business. After interviewing the business, student firms use a variety of online tools like Google Slides, Docs, Sheets, and Forms, LogoMakr, Avery Label Maker, PlaceIt, and Photofunia to develop a marketing plan, posters, a logo, slogan, business card, electronic billboard, promotional product, commercial, and a budget. Students learn graphic design skills, and important computer skills like exporting Google Drawings as a .png and Google Slide to .jpegs. The business comes in after campaigns are developed to listen to all firms ad pitches. The Trussville business chooses the best ad campaign and that student firm receives the trophy as CES’s Next Top Firm.
Next Top Firm Curriculum, Pictures, Videos, and Student Portfolios
DREAM VACATION
Another STEM based Enrich Experience is Dream Vacation. In this course, students become travel agents. They use virtual reality headsets to explore countries around the world. They research and chart the best hotels, restaurants and attractions to visit. Then, they design a dream vacation with a budget of $15,000 for a client. Students create a travel website featuring embedded Google Slides and Sheets and graphs. At the end of the course, students showcase their vacation plans and budgets.
Photo Gallery
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EnRich Advertisement
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Next Top Firm Presentation
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EXTRACURRICULAR AT HOME STEM
EXTRACURRICULAR AT HOME STEM
KITS, PROGRAMS, & CHALLENGES
Cahaba Elementary School offers students STEM kits and programs that allow students to engage in STEM learning at home.
Photo Gallery
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STREAM@HOME KITS
STREAM@Home was a grant funded by the Trussville City Schools Foundation. Students were enjoying the Google Expeditions VR program at school. The school wanted to extend the experience to families so a grant was written to request funding for at home kits. 4th and 5th grade students were allowed to checkout STREAM @Home Kits. Each kit is a tub with the following materials: VR headset, books related to the topic, and directions to access the Google Expedition app. Students could check out the kit, explore the VR, read the books, and were asked to complete a survey about their STREAM@Home Experience. Unfortunately, the program came to an end when Google Expeditions deleted their VR app. We are currently looking for an at-home VR experience to share with families.
MICROBIT KITS
Our MicroBit Kits were funded in part by the Trussville City Schools Foundation, technology, and instructional funds. Originally, The MicroBits were used as part of our Coding Innovations EnRich course. The course was such a hit with the students, that it is now a part of the 5th grade STEM Lab Curriculum. In our last unit of the year, students identify a real-world problem in which they hope to solve. Students design and build solutions with the MicroBits. After seeing the time students were willing to spend on the project and their frustration with the amount of time they had in class, we began a check out system. Students can check out the MicroBits on a first come first serve basis.
PROGRAMS
Our school offers students online programs that engage students in computer based STEM at home. Students practice coding skills using Code.Org, Tynker, and Scratch and do 3D design at home using Tynkercad. Students utilize the Typing Club program to practice typing skills and pHet interactive simulations to do virtual science and math labs. There are a plethora of online tools on our STEM Lab Learning Platform Choice Board. Students can participate in science and engineering labs and flight simulations, coding, 3D design, virtual field trips, and STEM interactives. They can watch videos and participate in DIY at STEM projects.
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