Standard 1

PES students engage in STEM learning experiences that integrate all STEM disciplines with an emphasis on processes and practices associated with STEM.

Paine's students engage in STEM learning experiences that integrate STEM disciplines and emphasize processes for problem solving.

Engineering Design Process

One way that all learners at Paine Elementary consistently engage in STEM process and practices is through the use of our common district-adopted problem solving model - the Engineering Design Process (EDP). In 2017, Alabama rolled out our new AL Digital Literacy Computer Science (DLCS) standards for elementary schools. In response, TCS began providing professional development to support these standards, and looking at current models of the Engineering Design Process (EDP) in order to create a graphic for Trussville students. This graphic would be used across the district to guide the process of strategically solving problems.

All elementary STEM teachers and Lead Technology Teachers (LTTs) received initial training in the use of the EDP. The LTTs brought this learning back to teachers at Paine to start building a foundation of STEM practices in our classrooms, and STEM Lab teachers began introducing it to our students. Posters of Trussville's model for the EDP can be found in our STEM lab, STREAM Studio, and in many teachers' classrooms throughout the building.

For 30 minutes each week in the STEM Lab, students in all grades are scheduled to participate in activities related to the Engineering Design Process. In addition, the EDP is used in science and math classroom lessons and integrated projects, in extracurricular school STEM experiences, like ENRICH, and in our new STREAM Studio.

The internal review allowed us to look at some data pieces to see how we have grown in our STEM EDP instruction. In our old pacing guides for elementary student's technology classes before implementing the EDP, we noticed that students were not receiving instruction specific to problem solving. As a result, we began explicit instruction in the steps of the EDP and students are now getting more experience and are becoming more effective users of the EDP, as seen in our current pacing guides.

Mrs. Brandon's STEM students in the imagine phase of the EDP

Mrs. Benson's STEM students in the plan phase of the EDP

Mrs. Benson's STEM students in the create phase of the EDP

We have observed improvement in our students’ understanding of how to break apart a problem and work toward solving it, though we have noticed some steps in the process seem to come easier to some students than others. Observational evidence shows that students feel confidence and eagerness in the create phase - they want to skip research and planning and jump right in and start creating. As a result of students’ struggles with the planning stage of the EDP, we plan to intentionally design lessons that provide practice at this stage to increase their understanding the importance of this phase. Conversations have also revealed that having sufficient time needed to deeply explore the testing phase, the redesign phase, and the making improvements phase of the EDP. Storage of projects for over 1300 students is also a challenge for our STEM program. Reflections on these observations have resulted in our seeking and examining solutions for our time challenges to better provide students opportunity to experience these critical parts of the EDP. Solutions we have found include breaking up projects over multiple days, and including more digitally-based challenges to reduce the need for project storage in our large school.

In addition to STEM lab and the use of the EDP in classroom, problem-solving in STEM has become more ingrained in the practices at Paine through the creation this year of our STREAM Studio. This space provides resources and a larger space for creating and storage of projects, and you will find a large replica of our Engineering Design Process on the wall to help guide all the work that takes place there. The school media specialist has purchased more STEM kits, STEM related books and robotics to allow more opportunity for student engagement in this space. Teachers received specific professional development in the proper use of the STREAM Studio for additional STEM related lessons. In these initial stages of use, we are encouraging our teachers to collaborate with our school media specialist to help scaffold the design of STEM challenges that incorporate their curriculum. So far, the usage of this space for STEM experience has increased every month as evidenced by our reservation calendar. STEM skills will become even more ingrained as we continue to develop and implement our STREAM studio for student use at Paine Elementary School.

STREAM Studio school logo

Teacher EDP training in STREAM Studio

4th grade STEM Lab students using the EDP to design cars

3rd grade STEM Lab students coding challenge using Dash and Dot

5th grade STEM Lab students going through the design process using Exraordinaires

scheduled STEM Lab

Another way that students at Paine Elementary experience STEM learning experiences and participate in STEM processes and practices is by attending class in our STEM Lab on a weekly basis. Our school's weekly schedule has our students regularly engaged in a STEM curriculum that systematically integrates the Engineering Design Process (EDP), the AL Digital Literacy and Computer Science Standards (DLCS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

When the DLCS standards were released, we realized that the curriculum we were teaching in our technology course for K-5 no longer was sufficient to provide students all of the hard and soft skills they would need to be successful in STEM careers. As a result, STEM lab class was specifically created and replaced the technology class in 2017, so that all students could engage and grow in STEM learning experiences. Now all Paine K-5 students participate in STEM with a professional STEM teacher for 30 minutes on a weekly basis.

STEM units and lessons are designed by our STEM teachers, are closely aligned to the DLCS, and integrate at least two STEM disciplines in addition to literacy and fine arts standards, as well. These integrated lessons incorporate multiple disciplines: engineering design, coding and computational thinking, measurement, estimation, literacy, art. When designing our lessons, we refer to the state course of study for science and math to ensure that our lessons support and integrate the learning students are doing in these areas. Some example of student experiences include:

Rosie Revere Engineer - Rosie Revere is quiet by day but at night she is dreaming about creative inventions. When she gets a visit from her Aunt Rose, she is inspired to invent a contraption to fly. Will she be successful? Students use the EDP to design an item that serves a specific purpose using recycled products, integrating literacy, the EDP, and environmental science.
Ada Twist, Scientist - Ada Twist, Scientist champions girl power and women scientists, and brings welcome diversity to picture books about girls in science. Touching on themes of never giving up and problem solving, Ada comes to learn that her questions might not always lead to answers, but rather to more questions. Students used their fives sense to explore items in bags, incorporating anatomical science, the EDP, and the research process.
Extraordinaires - Students are presented different unique superheroes who have very particular interests and needs, and then are charged with utilizing the EDP to design items specifically for those interests and needs. What type of shoes could we design for a superhero who can breathe underwater, likes jogging and parties, and has a fondness for coffee? What materials would we need to design these shoes? How do we create a mockup? - incorporating the EDP and art.
Code.org - Students use the engineering design process, computational thinking, and technology (sometimes, sometimes not!) to practice and develop coding skills using Code.org - integrating the EDP and computational thinking.
Tinkercad and 3D Printers - Students tackle a real-world challenge - creating 3D EDP manipulatives in Tinkercad for younger students to help them learn about the engineering design process and print them using the 3D printer - integrating math, the EDP, and technology.
BeeBots - Students design an alphabetical path for BeeBot and use the EDP and computational thinking to create and test the code to help BeeBot navigate through the path - integrating the EDP, computational thinking, and spelling.
Data Manipulation - Students learn how to collect and manipulate data about research topics in spreadsheets to create useful graphs that tell data stories - integrating math, research, the EDP, and technology.

Because of the level of engagement that these experiences provide for students, teachers have expressed interest in having a dedicated place to provide more extensive STEM experiences for their students, as well. As a result, this year, we have developed the STREAM Studio, discussed further in Standard 6. This new space and the professional development for teachers in using it is an exciting and powerful new step for us in ingraining STEM practices throughout our school.

5th Grade STEM Lab student displaying his 3D Design in Tinkercad

3th grade STEM Lab students partner coding using block programming

Kindergarten student in STEM Lab demonstrating having met criteria for Iggy Peck design challenge

4th Grade students test prosthetic fins they designed after sharing the book Winter's Tail.

Kindergarten Art students performing experiments integrating science and art

5th Grade Music students integrating technology, math, and music

1st Grade students design a communication device to explore sound science standards.

Classroom projects and content

A final way that all students at Paine Elementary experience STEM learning experiences and participate in STEM processes and practices is through integrated classroom projects designed by our teachers. Throughout our building, you can find experiences that integrate STEM with our social studies, science, math, and literacy standards. Grade levels are provided common planning times to design experiences for our students like the following:

- Whole School - All students participate in STEMscopes at Paine Elementary. STEMscopes is an award-winning, research-based national leader in PreK-12 STEM curriculum. It provides comprehensive digital resources, supplemental print materials, and hands-on exploration kits that drive engagement and academic growth. All science teachers receive training on how to implement STEMscopes with quality and fidelity. We all receive our specific STEMscopes kit before we teach each scope that provides us with all the resources we need to implement the program. Teachers have collaborated and continue to collaborate on using the curriculum and resources effectively with our students. We document their use on our daily schedules and lesson plans. We have a yearly master plan that lays out exactly when we teach each scope. We use the claim and evidence writing rubric with students and multiple question assessment provided by STEMscopes to provide student growth data.
- Kindergarten - In conjunction with our unit on the Pilgrims, the class was challenged to build a boat that would float and support the weight of passengers in the form of pennies. If the boat didn't float the students had to modify their design. For the boats that did float, the students were challenged to improve their design to support more passengers.
- 1st Grade - One of our first grade science standards states: Design and construct a device that uses light or sound to send a communication signal over a distance. Our first graders are given paper cups, string, yarn, wire, and tape to construct a device that they can use to communicate . They have to choose two of the three types of string offered. They planned and designed their own communication device. They then tested their devices and shared out to decide which one worked the best. The pictures below show what devices they created and how they tested them.
- 2nd Grade - Through our STEMscopes curriculum while learning about physical properties of materials, we offered a challenge to students to create a monster using specific criteria and given materials . We took it one step further by creating a Chatterpix presentation giving information about the physical properties of their structure and how it met the criteria.
- 3rd Grade - 3rd grade teachers collaborated with the STEM teacher to do a coding activity that supported our unit on geometry. The students used a coding program to have the robots create geometric shapes. Students had to have knowledge of angles and shapes in order to properly code the robots. This collaboration integrated all 4 disciplines of STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math.
- 4th Grade - Animal Prosthetics- After hearing the true story of a dolphin who injures her tail, and is helped by a team of dedicated prosthetists, students were challenged to design, build, and test a prosthetic part for a wind-up toy animal. Students collaborate as they inquire, research, explore, and observe how biomedical engineers from life saving medical devices to life changing prosthetic limbs. We began by hearing the story, Winter's Tail. Students then researched how prosthetics work and how 3D printing is used in prosthetics, and they followed the EDP design process to design a working prosthetic for a plastic wind up toy animal.
- Music - In music class, students compared the music notation tree to a factor tree to connect math, science, and music. Students started with 4 chairs to represent the beat. We cut the notes into 1/2 then from 1/2 to 1/4. We discussed how a whole note is one whole pie. We divided the pie into 2 halves and then the 2 halves each into 1/4 quarters. Then we subdivided the 1/4 quarter notes into 1/8 or eighth notes. Then we divided the 1/8 notes into 1/16th notes and discussed how this affects sound in music.
- Art - Kindergarten Marbled Paper. When learning about physical properties and density, our Kindergarten teachers collaborated with art to create a unit in which students learned about oil and water. We did a marbled paper project in art which discussed the density of oil and water and showed in person how the density of oil is lighter than water allowing it to float. Mixing oil with watercolor paint allowed for beautiful marbling to occur when students placed paper into the water. The results were incredible! It was such a fun way to visually show this scientific evidence.

Because of the design of our science and math curriculum and the design our specials schedule, we know that 100% of our students are getting regular exposure to quality STEM experiences on a weekly basis. Work that we have done as a faculty - professional development for STREAM Lab, integrating computational thinking into curriculum, ENRICH classes, Engineering Design Process professional development, and building-wide STEM events - have proven to further ingrain understanding and use of STEM processes and practices with our students.