Standard 8
Learners benefit from a formal structure of within-school and extracurricular opportunities to extend STEM learning.
Paine Elementary students benefit from a formal structure within our school and extracurricular opportunities to extend STEM learning. Our leaders ensure that students have multiple formal, age-appropriate opportunities to engage with STEM practitioners, community experts, and STEM partners. These opportunities include ENRICH and STEM days, STREAM and Math night for families, and school math teams.
EnRICH
EnRICh began in the Fall of 2018 as a way to challenge and push the boundaries of our high achieving students. Through our EnRICh sessions, PES consistently provides a variety of STEM-specific extracurricular opportunities for learners. School leaders implemented a systematic process to offer protected time for STEM-specific EnRICh sessions. Based on the success of the first years of EnRICh, we have expanded the program to include all students in grades 2 through 5. Students have an opportunity to select sessions based on their interests as well as be referred for specific sessions and teams, such as 4th and 5th grade Math Teams and Science Olympiad.
Teachers selected an EnRICh session that they were interested in hosting, and students completed an interest survey to be matched to a session. The student application results show student interest in different learning experiences. For 1 hour on Thursdays, all 2nd through 5th grade students travel to their EnRICh learning experience. Students participate in the one learning experience for between 6 and 9 sessions in the Fall semester, and a different learning experience for between 6 and 9 sessions in the Spring semester. EnRICh provides an opportunity for students to explore STEM-specific content outside of the traditional classroom setting. Since students had a voice in choosing their learning experience, the STEM skills are internalized more.
Data from our Fall 2022 EnRICh exit survey for students shows the following outcomes:
80% of students surveyed felt that they collaborated with others
68% of students surveyed participated in STEM disciplines
63% of students surveyed felt that they participated in self-directed learning
45% of students surveyed felt that they experienced authentic inquiry
As we plan new learning experiences for Spring 2023 and adjust previous learning experiences for new groups of students, we will consider the results from our Fall 2022 exit survey. One area for adjustment for future sessions will be intentionally incorporating more opportunities for authentic inquiry.
Some EnRICh Experiences throughout the years have included:
A BEEutiful Parade - I love a parade! A parade planner wants to design the PERFECT PARADE right here in Trussville, and needs your help – Get ready to select the perfect parade theme, design the perfect parade floats, and map the perfect parade route through Trussville by coding BeeBots!
Build It Festival - Experience great explorations in math & science! Use geometry to create something amazing! We will work with pattern blocks to build structures using different shapes and bases. We will create 3-D geometrical shapes out of newspapers and dowel sticks or straws. We will use Tessellations and symmetrical objects to develop our spatial sense. We will work with angles, creating, measuring, and manipulating them.
Code Your Hero - Choose an everyday hero from your own life and build a story or game using code that gives your hero superpowers!
Comic Book Math - Is Math your Superpower? Do you love to draw? A comic book producer wants to create an engaging comic book to teach others about the important ideas and strategies in math. Create a math superhero and math problems your hero may face. Create a comic book of your superhero solving problems where math is used, while teaching the reader more about math.
Down the Drain - How much water do you use everyday in your home? Would you be surprised to learn that according to the USGS the average American uses between 80-100 gallons (approx. 300 - 375 liters) of water per day? Do you think people in other parts of the world use more or less water than Americans? Well, this collaborative project will help you find out the answers to these questions. By collecting data on water usage from people around the world you will be able to see how your water use compares to others and determine what you might do to use less water.
Math Explore - Math is all around us in the world and YOU are a mathematician! Learn about how math exists in every job by solving challenging, real-world math problems. Work with friends to solve these challenging problems and grow your MATH BRAIN!
Paine Top Chef - Would you like to be the next Top Chef while learning about global cuisine and cultures? We will cook up conversions, mix in some measurements and sprinkle in some cultural treats all the while journaling about our experiences. Our minds will be stretched, our math skills will be kneaded, and we will cultivate culinary kids!
PES Game Design - In Game Design, students learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, including racing, platform, launching, and more!
Robotic Miniature Golf Course - Are you a designer and builder? What if we had a miniature golf course at our school? You will work with a team to follow the engineering design process to prototype one hole in the course with multiple hazards using no tech resources easily found around school and/or your house and high tech by coding a robot to move to increase the skills others will need to master the hole. Your team will present your design to Dr. Lothspeich and others to test their skills and share your knowledge of designing a miniature golf course. Let’s build it!
Species Survival - Are you an animal lover? Did you know that there are several threatened and endangered species right here in Alabama? Join Species Survival to see how you can help protect wildlife in our area!
Sports Science - Will drawing exercises, completed daily, help improve one’s ability to complete simple sports drills (dribbling a basketball, hitting a baseball, throwing and or catching a baseball)? Students will use the Scientific Method to answer this question by collecting data, journaling, sketching and completing sports drills and presenting findings.
Grade-Level & School-wide STEM Days
Polar Express day
Leprechaun Challenge
Paine learners benefit from within school extracurricular opportunities that are STEM-specific through grade-level and school-wide STEM days. Two of these school-wide STEM days have focused around the books, The Polar Express and How to Catch a Leprechaun. Our grade-level teachers also provide collaborative STEM days such as first grade "Elf Day" and fourth grade "GLOW Day."
Our Polar Express STEM Day was a HUGE success and the entire school participated. We compiled a FUN list of STEM activities that teachers could do in their classrooms. Students wore pajamas and rotated throughout different experiences based on their grade level. Each experience tied with and integrated STEM disciplines, along with the Polar Express theme. Throughout the day, we also had special STEM experiences and lessons facilitated by our specials teachers to continue the fun and learning. Each student was provided with fun STEM home activities and encouraged to continue their learning at home.
Another school-wide STEM day was focused around the book How to Catch a Leprechaun. All teachers read the book aloud to their class, then presented a challenge to all students to work with the Engineering Design Process to design, create, and implement their own leprechaun trap using only recycled materials. Students were given the opportunity to show off their final project to their peers and show if their design was truly able to trap a leprechaun.
The first grade team worked collaboratively to design an Elf Day STEM experience. Students designed a container/ seat for their elf to zip-line quickly to put a toy in Santa’s sack. The students worked with a team to create their elf chair to ride on the zip-line. The students used coffee filters, tape, yarn, pennies for weights to make it go faster. The students worked in another center to do design an elf trap.
Fourth grade teachers collaboratively planned GLOW Day for their students. All students rotated throughout classrooms for a variety of fun activities that were interdisciplinary. In each room students created a different final product based on different content areas and how they each related to energy and electricity.
We do not have any final data from any of these experiences. We feel as though a survey could be conducted afterwards to gauge engagement, likeability, and what students learned from the STEM experiences if these were repeated the following year. However, it is evident from the experiences we have offered, teachers are more open to integrating extended opportunities for STEM experiences and would like to provide more for our students.
4TH GRADE GLOW DAY
1ST GRADE ELF DAY
Extracurricular stream at school and beyond
Paine Elementary School consistently provides a variety of STEM-specific opportunities for learners within the school day and extended day. These programs were created to provide quality experiences for students by highly-trained teachers who specialize in their areas. The opportunities for students also provide imperative collaborative planning time for teachers to work on also providing STEM-specific activities in their classrooms. These STEM opportunities within and outside of the school day include music and art programs, Math Team, Science Olympiad, STREAM Family Night, and Math Family Night.
Paine Elementary provides all K-5 students with a variety of STEM specific extra-curricular opportunities. Our music program is made of two music instructors who lead a choir and various programs throughout the year. Each grade level performs for the community once a month in an after-school performance. Additionally, our Paine Performers choir has reached out and performed for the community at Board Meetings as well as a Bicentennial event for Trussville. During school, our music program has diligently collaborated with other teachers in our school to have STEM students map out music notes as well as fifth graders teaching drum patterns to kindergarten students. Our Fine Arts department has collaborated with grade level teachers to produce a music program per grade level to be held in the evenings for all stakeholders. These programs exhibit an integration of the arts with other content areas. For example, the focus of the 4th grade program was Alabama History, 2nd grade program was all about famous Americans, the first grade music program will focus on animal studies, etc.
Our school has two art teachers who regularly incorporate S.T.R.E.A.M. into their curriculum. In the Art Lab, students regularly have the opportunity to compete and enter their artworks into competitions across the state and nation, such as the Alabama State Superintendent Visual Arts Show. We had a third place winner for the 3rd and 4th grade category. Additionally, students have entered their artwork in the Birmingham Museum of Art Youth Art Month exhibition.
As part of our enrichment program, we have a 4th and 5th grade Math Team and a Science Olympiad team. These teams have competed in competitions. Paine Elementary has recently hosted the regional math competition. Our students participate in outside field trips to enhance their STEM learning and are also exposed to guest speakers on various topics.
STREAM Family Night provided our Paine families with nineteen different engaging and challenging STEM activity options. These included: Using the formal design process to solve a problem, making a paper clip float in the air without touching it, an activity where families made a structure that would hold 10 apples, virtual reality, digital breakouts, X-STREAM Play Zone, Art Scavenger Hunt, etc. Additionally, families are engaged as STEM partners through family math night. Teachers proactively educate parents on inquiry based learning in order to seek resources and support from families as partners in their child's education. Student leaders helped to plan this awesome event for us.
Paine Elementary School Family Math Night provided our families with an opportunity to get hands-on with the hands-on, rigorous materials that our students use daily in math. Families were presented with various math games, participated in number talks and investigative tasks, while also exploring counting collections, a survey station, and an estimation station. This was a great opportunity for our students to extend their learning while also showing off their learning to their families.
Discover your Path with Math, Under Construction slides
Our student data from summative assessments has shown that enrichment and STEM opportunities throughout the school day and after, increase student achievement. Summative data shows an increase in student achievement, especially among high performing students. Those students have grown based on consistent extracurricular opportunities that challenge their thinking and learning. The academic growth of our students has proven the success of the extracurricular opportunities our students receive within the school day and outside of the school day. Through this success, our school has continued to focus on providing these opportunities to students, and also focus on how to continue to expand to offer more opportunities that continue to attract student attention and improve learning. We have applied for the Alabama Robotics Grant which will help provide VEX kits for our students. The hope for these kits is to use them to create a Robotics team that will also travel and compete.