On the move

"She's a 'Real World Scientist'!" Thanks to  Nepris , our 5th graders were able to connect with an astronomer. The students had submitted questions and were so intrigued to learn from as they said over and over a "Real World Scientist." The students weren't the only ones who were excited. Their teachers were too. One of the teachers loved that fact that the astronomer was thrilled to answer the students' questions no matter how obscure. She said, "I would have had no idea if there were earthquakes on Jupiter." The astronomer was not only able to answer the question but was thrilled to do so. Our 6th graders also had the opportunity to meet a "Real World Scientist". Dr Susie Osborn came to share about her research in the field of neuroscience. The students were able to see slides of the neurons that she studies and ask questions about how the brain works. Her presentation was a great connection to all of the growth m

Working with new technology provided a learning opportunity for both teachers and students This year we tried something new for professional development. Teachers were offered a choice of professional development topics (Problem Based Math, Coding and Google Apps). They could choose to attend one session and be paid for 3 hours of their time. The sessions were planned so that the teachers could spend the first half of the time learning and experimenting with new ideas. They then took what they learned and worked with the students in our summer program. Learning during the summer is much more relaxed but can be challenging because you do not have the opportunity to apply it right away. During these professional development sessions teachers had the chance to have the best of both worlds. They had the time to learn and then work with students while being supported. And the best part is that we all had fun learning!

The attraction of building of Legos is intense. All summer the Legos have been out as an engineering design option. Time after time the students have gone back to their projects or chosen to start new ones. Anytime they pass by the tables of Legos they have to stop and tinker. What is the attraction? I know that many of the students do not have Legos at home so they could be a novelty. Although I would suspect that after 4 weeks that would not sustain their attention. I guess some toys really are timeless.

Young children are naturally curious and ask tons of questions. I can remember wondering if my son would ever tire of asking, "Why?" As students enter school the balance of who asks the questions shifts. Students do the bulk of the answering and ask very few questions. This presents a problem when we want students to explore open ended topics and invent and reiterate their creations. All of this starts with a question that is student centered. As I have watched students in our summer program and in STEM lessons, some of them struggle to engage because they have trouble forming a question. Their curiosity is no longer natural. To help students develop their questioning skills and to recognize the need for a questions, we focused on questions. Here's a sample our efforts. I've edited some for clarity. How do you make an experiment? How to you make stuff with Legos? Can we build 3 houses out of cardboard? How many blocks are in the Lego apartment? How big can

It feels impressive to be able to give a blog entry this title. When I started this program, I did not know if it would exist beyond the first year. I am excited to say that it has not only continued but it has grown larger every year. In our first two weeks this summer we averaged 45 students each day! This year I wasn't even there to start the program. Another staff member from our school launched this year's program. It had a smooth start with lots of eager students.They documented the time with pictures and kept me updated. The group of students this year are a mixture of students who have attended every year and new students. The age range is from 1st grade to 8th grade The greatest sign of success for me was when a student came to me with suggestions of design projects. She has attended the program every year. She asked to do some of the projects we have done in previous years. I took it as a sign that we are on the right track with our program. Balloon Rockets and

Recently I completed the end of the year report for our  Hillsboro Schools Foundation  Grant. The process of writing the grant report game me a chance to reflect on how far we have come as a STEM school. The month of May can be a challenging time both mentally and emotionally. With the onset of state testing, there can be a sense of dread and fear. We feel the angst of "I didn't do enough to prepare them" or "I just need more time with them". Completing the report helped to ease some of this. To gather information for the report, I interviewed the teachers whose classrooms directly benefited from the grant funds. Our 5th graders and 1st graders are 2nd year STEM students as they were part of the pilot classrooms last year. The 5th grade teachers noted that their students were able to work well in groups and also showed a high level perseverance with a challenging task. They transferred those skills into another group project, re-purposing items for the inventio

Most of the time great things come from solid preparation and thoughtful implementation but not always. The What If? Club is one of the exceptions. It's not to say there was a complete absence of forethought. I had been pondering the idea of an after school program for 6th graders designed by 6th graders. I pitched the idea to the students. They were excited about the idea of creating their own program. They struggled with selecting an initial project. I chose to start the club with a session of  Breakout Edu . This is where the planning ended and fortune began. I was not available to lead the first meeting of the What If? Club. One of the 6th grade teachers offered to cover for me. Once the students learned that their teacher was leading the session, enrollment nearly doubled. The real magic happened during that first session. The teacher had so much fun solving the puzzle with the students that she started planning the next session, the very next day. The students were hooked an

We are more than half way through our first year as a STEM school. As we build our STEM identity, we have been busy as STEM learners. Both teachers and students are being risk takers. Our 5th graders and their teachers have expanded their STEM learning by programming robots. Their challenge was to build and program autonomous robots that could model a robot moving supplies in a hospital. This was a new learning experience for both the teachers and the students. STEM learning is really taking off in 3rd grade with gliders. Students designed gliders using an iPad app. They used their math skills to measure and analyzed the data as they tested their glider models. Leprechauns had to dodge the engineers in kindergarten. Students used their engineering design process to try and trap the tricksters. Although their final iteration was unsuccessful at capturing any leprechauns, lots of great thinking was accomplished. As a school we took a big step in establishing o