STEM Curriculum

It can be very difficult at the elementary school level to get students interested in their classroom work, especially when they cannot see any relevance or applicability in either the knowledge or the process. Oftentimes, they either don't "get it" or don't "care", and who can blame them? On a surface level, many math and science standards seem totally foreign and disjointed from what they deal with or encounter in their lives, and the preferred use of technology is for gaming or social media applications. So how do we combat that? The Next Generation Science Standards state “crosscutting concepts help provide students with an organizational framework for connecting knowledge from the various disciplines into a coherent and scientifically based view of the world.” Additionally, The Common Core Standards state: “Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.” Distilling the NGSS and Common Core quotes, in essence, entails providing students opportunities to apply their learning to everyday life, which helps us articulate both our short and long term STEM goals at Woodland Forrest. We, too, have found that successful learning experiences, wherein a student is able to master content or concepts and transfer that knowledge to similar situations, typically arise from hands-on activities that directly relate to challenges or events from their home life or community. With young learners, the best way to accomplish this is to, first, find out what topics students care about and then create the instructional pathways that lead from their interests back to the related standards. When confronted with relevant and realistic scenarios, for example, solving the logistical mathematics of feeding hungry people or building a structure that can withstand floods, hurricanes, and/or tornado winds, students already have a high interest or engagement level. They are then far more likely to utilize their higher order thinking skills because they already have a working background knowledge on the subject and can see how their classroom problem solving translates to real-world solutions.

Weather Structures

In Alabama, we experience many weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. While our kindergarten students protect their sandbox from the sun and rain and learn how to prepare for severe weather, our 3rd and 4th graders learn how to build structures that can withstand weather conditions. During these projects, students have to consider the height and angles of the structure, what each weather event entails, and previous data about weather events and successful structures. Our students choose a severe weather event to research. They read graphs from previous weather events, describe what each weather event brings with it, and study what a structure should have for the best chance to remain standing. Students then use that data to design the blueprint for their structure. Once they have a plan, they choose materials based on relatability to real life materials and build. When students determine their structure is ready for testing, fans, blow dryers, hoses, and spray bottles are used to test the structures. As structures are being tested, students observe what is happening. Students then observe tests being performed on their peers’ structures. After all structures have been tested for the appropriate weather event, students explain what type of structures work best for each weather event based on the tests. After, students have a chance to design the best structure for each weather event.

Flood gate

Economics

It’s not uncommon for our social studies standards to tie nicely into STEM disciplines. Our students learn about wants, needs, goods, services, and scarcity. Students learned about wants and needs at the beginning of the year and related wants/needs to humans, animals, and plants. When it was time to learn about goods and services, students were able to apply what they learned about wants and needs. Students were paired up and chose if they were going to sell a good or service. Once they decided what to sell, partners created their goods or service by building the goods or the tools for the service. For example, one group chose to offer a barbering service and built a comb and clippers out of unifix cubes. Students then incorporated their learning about money in math by assigning a price to their goods or services. We then set up the Woodland Forrest Store and students used plastic money to purchase a good or service. As they purchased goods and services, they discussed whether it was a want or need. Eventually, goods started to become scarce. Students and teachers talked about what happens when goods and/or services become scarce and how that impacts buyers and sellers. This project enabled students to collaborate and focus on a topic that interests them while learning their social studies, science, math, and engineering concepts.

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