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Woodland Forrest started as an environmental science school, and our focus was rewarded with becoming a Green Ribbon School. However, as the world progressed, we realized our students needed more learning experiences that integrated all areas of science, technology, engineering, or math in order to be successful upon leaving the Forrest. During this transition, we went through all the versions of the STEM acronym: STEM, STEAM, STREAM, STREAMS, etc. We realized that the acronym does not matter as much as making sure that all disciplines are incorporated when possible, which really comes down to best practices. Integrating STEM disciplines, processes, and practices is an expectation in all grade levels at Woodland Forrest. Age is not a deterrent when building STEM capacity. For example, our kindergarteners complete a unit called “Sunny Sandbox'' which ends with an experience where they build a sandbox that blocks rain and sun. During this unit, students learn about weather, counting, shapes, graphing, comparing and contrasting, and vocabulary. Then, they use the engineering design process to select appropriate materials to block sun and rain, choose the best shape for their sandbox and sandbox cover, build their sandbox, count how much of the sandbox was impacted by rain and sun, record results, compare and contrast results, and then choose the ultimate best sandbox and cover. Within this unit, students also demonstrate the standards for mathematical practice. This unit in kindergarten prepares our students for continued integrated STEM experiences throughout the year and as they advance grade levels. By the time our students leave fifth grade, they have had integrated STEM experiences, such as sunglass creation in first grade, pollination in second grade, ocean cleanup in third grade, electrical engineering in fourth grade, and oil spill cleanup in 5th grade. Woodland Forrest believes that integration of all disciplines in STEM through thematic units leads students to having the practices and processes in place to be leaders in critical thinking and problem solving. The challenge teachers face in this area is connecting standards across disciplines while trying to follow a pacing guide put in place by the district and state. Teachers can often see the connections across disciplines but may not integrate because that is not what the pacing guide has them covering, and they want to stay on track with what is expected. We are working hard to convey that the goal is to teach the standards in a way that is best for students. As long as all standards are taught by the end of the year, the order is not always important.
Oil Spills
Oil Spills
The 5th grade ecosystem standards, Earth standards, and human activity standards pair well together. For this reason, this unit typically takes up a semester, as there is much content to cover. Through the SWH approach and the AMSTI kit, this unit includes learning about photosynthesis, abiotic and biotic factors, producers, consumers, decomposers, animals’ energy, sphere interaction, and pollution. Students explore their local environments, research environments that aren’t accessible to them, code an ecosystem, build ecocolumns, perform pH experiments, and wrap up with oil spill clean up as a culminating activity. This activity comes from the 5th grade AMSTI kit in which our teachers are trained how to use. Students use their knowledge of ecosystems and the engineering design process to design an oil spill clean up plan. Students are given a budget of $20 million and purchase cleanup supplies. Students use their math skills to keep track of their budget. Students receive a cost score, so the less money they spend, the better…maybe. Students then draft up their plan and carry out the tests. Students test for shore damage and remaining oil in the “ocean.” Students receive points against them based on shore damage and how much oil they left in the ocean. Students’ scores correlate to an ecosystem impact summary that lets students know what happened to their ecosystem. Students then have the chance to carry out this project one more time and make revisions to materials and plans based on self-assessment. Once finished, students will summarize their learning. To bring partners in on this project, our STEM coordinator invited engineers from UA to teach students about water pollution through a game. Our teachers met with our tech coach and STEM coordinator because they wanted to add a better tech experience to this project. Together, they decided to have students use TinkerCad to design a boom or skimmer that could be used in real life to clean up oil spills. The designs could then be 3D printed for prototypes. This project enabled students to incorporate all STEM disciplines in a real world scenario.
Force Robots
Lego WeDo enables students to work through the engineering design process in way that integrates all STEM disciplines. Our students were learning about push and pull forces and used Lego WeDo to build and code pulling robots. Students had to follow a blueprint to construct the robot. They then had to program the robot to pull and not push. Once their code was created, students tested their robots. Students added weight to their robots until the forces were balanced. Students kept track of the weight through addition with each test. Once the forces were balanced, students were able to try out different wheels on their robots to determine if wheel size or material impacted how much weight could be pulled. To wrap up the unit, students built different pulling robots and we hosted a robot tug-of-war outside. Students were in charge of altering their code and robot to attempt to beat the other groups’ robots in the competition. After the tug-of-war competition, students wrote about which robot they would choose to compete if they had another chance at the competition. Students used evidence from the competition to support their thinking.
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