Embedded Files
Not every student is going to become a scientist, mathematician, inventor, or engineer, but every student should and will be STEM literate by the time they graduate fifth grade at Woodland Forrest. STEM literacy is the most adept way to prepare our students for high school, college, and the workforce. One of our goals is to prepare students to be college and career ready, and STEM learning and curriculum is a way for us to do that. STEM learning must always be rigorous and relevant for students, but it is also a learning progression. Students must learn the basics first. They must walk before they run. Two ways that the teachers at Woodland Forrest prepare students for this is with our gardening and coding progressions.
All teachers at Woodland Forrest have created classroom accounts using Code.Org. This program allows teachers to teach computer science with a progression of lessons that increase in complexity as students progress from one lesson to the next. Students are allowed to progress at their own pace while teachers are able to assign and track student progress in real time. This progression led to our fifth graders designing their own apps on Code.Org’s App Lab. The winning app from our school was submitted for the Governor’s App Challenge and went on to win for our local school district, the state school district, and the 1st place state award from Governor Kay Ivey. In addition to Code.Org, our coding progression includes coding and building robots. Our pre-K and kindergarten students begin with an “unplugged” robot, called Cubetto, which helps with directional words and sequencing. First grade uses BeeBots which also help with directional words, but unlike Cubetto, the code cannot be seen; so, students must remember the code sequence. Second and third grade code Lego WeDo robots to solve real world problems, which require them to first build the robot by following a blueprint and then code. Our fourth and fifth grade students use Sphero and Ozobots, which require more precise codes with measurements of angles and distances with decimals.
In addition, our school has its very own Garden, where teachers and students learn gardening and environmental skills from experts. Woodland Forrest uses the garden as a means to teach students critical thinking and problem solving skills. They also use this time to extend student learning and integrate subject areas. Students learn how to test environmental concepts, how math is used in the garden, and how different factors impact the environment. The garden curriculum used at Woodland Forrest is a progression, enabling students to develop their STEM skills over time and in a developmentally appropriate way. Kindergarten begins with closely observing plants in the garden; whereas, fifth grade is using the products of the garden to cook. Cooking provides an opportunity for students to apply the garden knowledge they gained to their learning about ecosystems.
Woodland Forrest believes that all curriculum used in our school should be connected and work together seamlessly, and coding and the garden do exactly that. These progressions help our students learn necessary skills to take charge of their future. Our challenge in this area is getting elementary students to realize how these skills will carry them forward and keep doors open in their future. In elementary school, most students do not have their adult lives planned, which means they do not always see the connection between what they are currently learning and their future. This is why we aim to show the relationship of skills to their current world, in hopes that they can transition, build, and apply those skills as they grow.
TCTA Trip
Our students get a chance each year to visit Tuscaloosa Career and Technology Academy. This is a trip that teachers and students look forward to because of the chance for students to see how the STEM skills they are learning relate to their next level of learning and the workforce. During the visit, students get the chance to weld, cook, build bird houses, code music, produce a newscast, construct circuits, and more with professionals in those domains. One highlight of the trip this year was when our students were in the electrical engineering session and the electrician asked “Does anyone know how this circuit works?” and one of our students responded with “The energy from the battery transfers through the wires to turn on the lightbulb.”. The electrician lit up with that response and commented to one of our teachers that our students have a lot of skills that he would like to see in high school students when they enroll and that he hopes to see our students there in the future. While we know that our students are building strong STEM skills, it is fulfilling when others, specifically STEM professionals, take notice.
Cooking in the Garden
Developing STEM skills also means developing life skills and that is exactly what our students do at the end of their semester with Schoolyard Roots. After working hard all semester to maintain the garden, students learn how to use those ingredients to cook. Students are tasked with constructing a meal from the garden. They first harvest vegetables, measure ingredients, chop the vegetables, warm up the pan, sauté, and then enjoy the meal they worked hard to produce. Gardening and cooking introduces our students to future careers and areas of interest, while also teaching them how to provide for themselves and their families.
Page updated
Report abuse