Connecting the Learning: Career Showcase

One of the key elements of our STEM program is connecting what our students are learning to the "real world".  It is important for our students to know and understand how they will use the content and skills after leaving school.  One way we accomplish this task is through our fall STEM Showcase.

Each fall, we invite community members, fellow teachers, Career Center instructors, and university professors in to share their knowledge and passion about learning.  Each of these individuals presents to rotating groups of students showing them how they can apply learning to their areas and careers.

The event is exciting for our students, teachers, and presenters.  Each group benefits from the event and we have several presenters that return each year.

We then have students present projects and presentations from their learning in the spring of each school year.  This is a time to invite some of the same community members back in to rotate through the student presentations.  This event allows our students to be seen as the experts and share their excitement for the things they have been learning.

I have included photos from our 2014 fall showcase below.

 

Outdoor Classroom Gardening & Composting













Dissection of Cow Eyes











Robotics

   

EMT and Medical Care
   










Bridge Construction & Engineering








EMT & Medical Care

Outdoor Learning Part I: Outdoor Gardens

Benton STEM Elementary has developed two outdoor learning spaces for teachers and students to use.  The goal is to provide classrooms with outdoor experiences where students can apply and expand on what they are learning in the classroom.  By taking learning outdoors, students begin to see how skills and content can be applied in a variety of places and situations.  It helps develop students transfer learning which all teachers know can be difficult to get students to do.

All of our outdoor areas were funded through grants and donations.  Grants are a great resource if you are looking to create some additional learning spaces at your school.  You can find out more information about grant writing in an earlier post here.

Elaine Kent Outdoor Garden

The Elaine Kent outdoor garden space at Benton STEM Elementary includes 17 raised beds, 2 green houses, a 3-bin composting system, and rain barrels.  It is named after Elaine Kent, a retired Benton PE teacher to recognize her dedication to the school, students, and staff.

Funding for the construction of this area came from the Verizon Foundation grant.  We also received additional support (monetary and labor) from the following groups:  Columbia Outdoor Classroom, Columbia Area Career Center, Columbia Rotary South, Quaker Oats, Bluebird Composting, Midwest Block & Brick, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, Boone County Lumber.

The raised beds are used by classrooms in the fall and spring seasons to plant food and flowers.  Teachers incorporate the use of this space with their Life science unit of study described in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).  Students learn what plants need to grown, the similarities between baby and parent plants, the life cycle of plants, and how to care for a garden.  Teachers use the green houses during the time when planting in the raised beds is not feasible because of weather.

The rain barrels are attached to the side of our trailers and on the front of our school building to collect water.  This water can then be used to water the gardens or for other outdoor tasks.  Our 5th graders also used the rain barrels as part of an engineering challenge.  Students were finishing up their Earth science unit on location and types of water sources on the Earth.  As a culminating project, students were asked to design a water filter to help keep debris out of the barrels.  Students were given an assortment of materials and asked to plan, create, test, and modify a design for the filter.  The students also discussed the difference between filtering drinking water and filtering for the rain barrels.  This was important because the designs for each purpose were different so students had to keep that in mind as they created their filter.

Our 3-bin composting system is also used by students and teachers.  Many classrooms collect leftover food from lunch or their fresh fruits/vegetable snacks to place in the composting area.  The 3-bin system is maintained by students with the support and guidance of the Outdoor Classroom volunteers.  Once the composting has completed, the new soil is then used to add to the gardens and for planting done in classrooms.

Through additional funding by the Whole Kids Foundation Garden grant, we were able to purchase extra tools and seeds to be used in the garden.  We purchased additional seeds, gardening gloves, an outdoor sink, children's wheelbarrows, large rain gauges, and large thermometers.  The rain gauges and thermometers will be used to help incorporate measurement and math skills into the garden.

Pictures below show what our outdoor garden space looks like.  The garden picture was taken after returning from summer break.  Many of the summer school classrooms had planted food and left it to grow over the summer.  It was a great way to show students how much space different plants take up when they are full grown and the importance of maintenance of gardens.

 

 

Engineering in Elementary School - The Basics

The Next Generation Science Standards integrate engineering at the elementary level.  For many elementary teachers, this might seem a little overwhelming due to the little to no training teachers receive in this area.  However, I want to provide some words of encouragement.  As my teachers and staff have been developing their understanding of engineering, many have found they were already doing it to some degree.  In my opinion, if you were already incorporating project based learning where students were designing something to solve a problem you were engaging your students in an engineering task.

Before I get in to more detail, I want to highlight a few things.  First, the engineering design process is a key component to implementing engineering at any level.  The engineering design process includes: identifying a problem, asking a question, imagine possible solutions and ideas, develop a plan, create your solution, test it out, make revisions, test your solution again.  The most critical steps in this process are the last three because students need to be able to test their initial solutions, make modifications, and then test again.  This is where the learning occurs and students begin to see failure/struggles as a natural part of learning.

Second, an engineering task does not have to be a complex one.  The main goal is to give students a problem where they must design some type of innovative solution.  Your design challenge must provide rules and guidelines for their designs.  This prevents the task from being too open-ended and limitless.  This might involve setting certain specifications their solution must fit or giving them a budget and cost for items they would use in their solution.

At my school, we began our engineering learning process by incorporating units of study from the Engineering is Elementary Curriculum from the Boston Museum of Science.  These units of study are a great way to begin introducing engineering in your elementary classroom.  The curriculum includes 20 engineering units that each include a teacher's guide, materials kit, and story book.  For each unit, students read a storybook where the character is faced with some type of problem.  The character then learns how to go about designing a solution to the problem from a local engineer who follows the engineering design process.  After reading the story, the students work through a series of learning tasks where they design their own solutions to the problem.  If you are looking to find a way to begin to introduce engineering to your elementary students, I would highly suggest taking a look at this resource.

For my teachers, they are becoming more comfortable with the area of engineering and the engineering design process.  For this reason, we are beginning to develop and create our own engineering experiences for our students through project based learning.  In the integrated science units of study the teachers developed, they are working on designing a culminating project that requires the students to apply the science and math concepts they have been learning to an engineering design challenge.  We are also beginning the initial stages of implementing Project Lead the Way - Launch which will provide additional engineering resources for our teachers.  We are just starting the training process now so I will have more information and update you as we move into next school year.

Look for additional resources and engineering lesson examples in a future post.  And, feel free to contact me with any questions or if you want to learn more.  Below are additional places you can find information on engineering for elementary students.

Engineering Go For It

PBS Kids

Engineering for Kids

Integrating Science and Writing - A Science Literacy Center

One way many of my classroom teachers integrate is through the development and implementation of a science/writing center.  All of our teachers use the workshop approach to teach reading and writing.  For this reason, the students rotate through a variety of centers/stations where they are working on developing and applying their reading and writing skills.  The science/writing center provides students with opportunities to explore science concepts, discuss observations with classmates, and apply their writing skills by recording their observations in their science notebooks.

Many of my teachers are interested in implementing a science/writing station but are hesitant because they are not sure where to start.  There are many things to consider when developing a plan for your station because it needs to be purposeful and structured, but still allow the students the ability to explore.  As an instructional coach, I help my teachers develop their plan, gather materials, and even push in to their classroom to help implement and run the station if needed.

So what exactly does this look like?  Recently, I helped one of my 3rd grade teachers integrate a science/writing station into his literacy block.  The goal was to give his students meaningful opportunities to write about science concepts.  Below is the plan and outline we developed for his station.

Setting Up Expectations
First, we needed to develop a set of expectations for the center/station.  With elementary students, it was important for the students to know what the expectations were so we (the teachers) could hold them accountable for their learning.  So, I worked collaboratively with the students on the first day to create a list of what they thought it would look and sound like if they were working as scientists at this station.

The chart below includes the expectations the students developed.  The ones marked with an "*" are key to holding students accountable.

Daily Process

The center occurred during the teacher's reading block which lasted 60 minutes every day.  Students rotated through the stations after about 15-20 minutes.  The way we set up the science/writing station was to have a new focus question every 2-3 days depending on how quickly the students worked.  Typically, day 1 was for student observations where students could record if they wanted to.  Days 2 and 3 were for documenting their observations, thoughts, and reflections in their science notebooks.  

Day 1 - Students observing with tools, making noticings, discussing observations with the group, sharing ideas, asking questions.

Day 2 - Students recording observations from day 1 in their science notebook.  The expectation was their entries should include a sketch with labels, an "I noticed" or "I observed" statement, and any questions they have. 

My role during the station was to ensure the conversations and recordings in their notebooks were related to our focus question for the day.

Science Notebook Entries

Students recorded in their science notebooks for each focus question.  Each entry would have a sketch with labels, the focus question, observations including their "I noticed" or "I observed" statements, and any questions they had.  If you are implementing this in your classroom without an additional teacher, one way to check for understanding is to have a poster or board where students write 1 statement from their notebook on a sticky note and attach it to the board.  This would allow you to easily scan the chart to make sure their entries are related to the focus question and students are being productive during the center.

Guiding Questions
The questions for this station were connected to the 3rd grade Next Generation Science Standards for taht grade level.  Some of the topics they had previously discussed during science and others they would be learning later.  A science/writing station can be a great way to introduce your students to concepts and have them begin to use the language and vocabulary before you even discuss or explore it as a class.  It is also a great way to see what background knowledge and misconceptions your students might have on a given topic.  Below are some of the questions I had the 3rd graders explore.

Force & Motion

• How do things move?
• How does a ramp change how things move?
• What type of force makes things move?

Animal Characteristics & Habitats

• What can animal and insect characteristics tell us about them?
• What can animal and insect characteristics tell us about how they live?
• What can fossils tell us about an organism and its environment?

A science/writing center is a great way to get students exploring science concepts in a structured way while integrating writing.  You can also include a variety of texts to support this station so students are reading and writing about what they observe.  While it can be a bit overwhelming to start, I promise your students will enjoy the experience and you can get some insights into what the students understand when working without teacher guidance.

5 E Instructional Model

As a school that focuses on hands-on, inquiry science opportunities for our students, our teachers searched for a type of lesson design that accomplished this goal.  The 5 E Instructional Model was developed for the purpose of helping teachers develop more hands-on, inquiry based learning experiences in science.

The 5 E's include: engage, explore, explain, extend, evaluate.  One of the key components to this instructional model is that the students are doing the exploring and explaining.  Instead of the traditional method of the teacher explaining the concept and how it works, the students are developing their own explanations as they explore and investigate.

Another key aspect is when vocabulary is introduced or shared with students.  Teachers engage the students in learning about the content by doing some type of hands-on experiment or activity.  Specific vocabulary is not introduced until the explain phase and should be used by the students first.  Now, that being said, if you have a student who is perfectly describing a concept but does not have the specific word to label it, the teach can provide the word at that point.  For example, let's say a group of students are sharing what they noticed during an experiment about soil and erosion (explain phase of this cycle).  The students explain how they watched the soil be pushed aside by the water during their testing.  They continue by adding the water left a large path in the dirt after flowing across the soil.  As the teacher, I might say "do you know what scientists call that concept you are describing?"  If the students say no, I might ask other groups if they know the term.  If no one can help, I would say "a scientist would call that 'erosion'.  That is what is happening when the soil is pushed away by the water."  The most important difference between providing the vocabulary here and not in the beginning is the students have the background knowledge and context to connect that term to because of their exploration.    

My teachers have found this instructional method to be very beneficial for students.  While it does take some transition and reflection to implement for a teacher who is use to providing the information to the class, it helps students develop a deeper understanding in the end.

If you live in Missouri and would like to possibly learn more about the 5E Instructional Model, you can look in to participating in the QUEST (Quality Elementary Science Teaching) Program through the University of Missouri - Columbia.  Several of my teachers have completed this professional development and found it very powerful and necessary to change how they teach science.

Here are a few links where you can learn more about the 5 E Instructional Model.

Click here to find out more about the development of the 5 E Model

Click here for a general description

Click here for an explanation from NASA
Click here to see a 5E lesson plan example integrating reading, writing, engineering, and science.

Click here for a basic planning page

Integration: Haven't we been doing this already?

A word that I often use to describe our instructional practices at Benton is "integration".  For most teachers and educators, this is not a new term.  I spent hours reading and researching about integration in education while working on my dissertation.  However, the problem with this term is there are a wide range of definitions and interpretations for this term.  

I can remember in elementary school we would have units of study on dinosaurs or penguins.  While I realize I have no idea the planning that went into these units, it doesn't seem the selection of learning experiences were very purposeful and connected.  Sure, we wrote about dinosaurs, made a stuffed paper dinosaur, and read books about dinosaurs.  However, it seems the focus was more on the topic, dinosaurs, than the learning objectives in reading, writing, science, social studies, and mathematics.

The unit of study described above seems to be more of a forced type of integration.  In my dissertation, I developed a continuum to help provide a visual for my understanding of integration (see below).  

In this continuum, the left side indicates instruction that is separate (not in time of day taught, but making connections across areas) and may or may not include science and/or social studies instruction.  The middle stage would be where the dinosaur unit would fit in that I described above.  On the right would be (in my mind) what seamless, purposeful integration looks like in a classroom.

Seamless integration is the direction I think all teachers at Benton are headed with their planning, reflection, and instruction.  What exactly does this mean?  I want to start by clearing up a misconception that often occurs when a teacher begins to think about integration in the classroom.  I know this because this was the misconception I had when I first began exploring integration and what seamless integration can look like in any classroom.  This misconception has to do with what content is taught when during the day.  Just this weekend, I was asked if our teachers have a math time, reading time, science time, etc.  When I responded yes, the next comment was "so you are not integrating among content areas right?"  My answer to this question gets a little more complex.  You can integrate among content areas while still having separate times for the different areas.  

I know many of you are still thinking...so what exactly does that look like in a classroom?  For many of our teachers, it comes down to their planning, reflection, and instruction practices.  The teachers who have become more comfortable with seamless integration often decide to start with their science standards and concepts.  Then, they look at what nonfiction/fiction texts can they use during reading and writing time as mentor or guided reading texts that connect to the science concepts.  Next, they think about their writing time and Common Core State Standards to find ways to have the students write about their science learning through applying the writing skills and practices they are working on.  Finally, they look at the CCSS in math and how those skills connect to their science concepts.  By purposefully looking for connections across all content areas, they are making it easier to point out these connections to students during the lessons.

I think one of the biggest differences between the dinosaur unit I remember from early "integration" and the seamless integration happening at my schools is where the planning and lesson development starts.  Our teachers start with the standards and purposefully look for how those standards are connected.  At this point, our teachers are in the process of developing integrated units of study that demonstrates the connections across content areas. They use the Understanding by Design framework to guide their planning. More information on this framework can be found at http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/understanding-by-design-resources.aspx. I hope to share more of these plans as teachers finishing developing them this year. The most important thing to keep in mind is the development of these units is a process and they will become more detailed and complex as teachers spend more time planning, teaching, and reflecting on them. 

Where to get Funding? Grant Writing Tips

One question I often get asked is how Benton gets the funding to implement the new programs and purchase additional materials for our STEM initiative.  While we are a school-of-choice in our district, we do not receive any additional funding for our STEM program.  For this reason, we rely very heavily on grants to supplement our resources and programs.

The question that usually follows is who writes all the grants for our school.  The grants our school has received have been written by a combination of myself, support staff, and classroom teachers.  Grant writing is a topic I have become quite familiar with over the last two years or so.  I have spent many hours learning about the grant writing process, looking for funding sources, and refining my grant writing skills.  It has definitely been a learn-as-you-go thing for me because each grant I write helps me improve my skills.

Many teachers think they are not capable of writing successful grants.  However, as many of my colleagues have found this year, that is not the case.  While it does take some time in the beginning, the process seems to be very similar once you have written a few grants.

In this post, I hope to provide an overview of the grant writing process, a list of databases where you can find grants, and some helpful hints for those new to grant writing.  As you read my thoughts below, please keep in mind I would not consider myself an expert at grant writing.  I simply hope to share the experiences and successes I have had so far to help others who are just beginning to write grants for their school and/or classroom.

Let me start out by recommending you check with your school principal or district administration on their grant procedures and submission guidelines.  Many districts require you to submit your drafts to central office before submitting to the grant agency.  In my district, all grants must go through central office and grants over $10,000 must be approved by the Board of Education.

Before beginning your grant search, it is important to have a few things in mind.  You need to know an estimate of how much money you are wanting to get through the grant.  It also helps to have a specific program or project in mind when searching.  This will help you in your search as many grant agencies have areas of focus for grant requests.

Once you have a total grant amount and project idea in mind, it is time to start your search.  For me, I usually start with grant databases like STEMFinity, Grantwrangler, Grants.gov, LegoEducation Grant Opportunities, etc.  These are great starting points for finding a range of grant sources for a variety of funding amounts.

Are you looking for a smaller grant for your classroom?  Have you tried DonorsChoose.org?  This is a great way for classroom teachers to get smaller grants for your classroom.  Many Benton teachers have successfully written DonorsChoose.org grants for things like nonfiction texts, weather stations, science materials, etc.  If you haven't tried it, this site is very simple and easy to use.  First, create a classroom/teacher account.  Then, create your project/program you want funded by writing a short description, going shopping for materials, and answering a few other short questions about your student/school population.  DonorsChoose.org will review your application and ask you to make any changes before it goes public on the site.  Once it is accepted, anyone who visits the site can make donations towards your project.  Once funded, your materials will be sent to you at school.  All you have to do is complete thank you cards and submit pictures of the materials in use.  Each funded project earns you more points.  More points means you can apply for larger, more costly items/projects.

Are you writing a grant for your school or district and need a large amount of money?  NSF (National Science Foundation) might be what you are looking for.  This database provides a list of grant opportunities for large programs/projects.  In my experience, we have submitted a few of these grants for over $500,000 in collaboration with the University of Missouri.  Often, these programs/grants involve a research component to assess the success of the program/project.    

Once you have found a funding source that matches your area of focus for your project or program, it is time to begin writing.  Remember to always connect your project to the area of focus for the funding agency.  Your goal is to make your program/project sound like something innovative that directly matches their agency goals or giving areas.  Here are a few of the common sections found in many grant applications.

Basic Information - This section includes basic school and applicant contact information, school tax identification information, central office contacts, etc.  You will also need to know breakdown of ethnicity and free and reduced priced lunch students.  Some funding agencies also ask for a list of Board of Education members, positions, and emails.

School Mission - In this section, you will need to provide a brief overview of your school's mission and goals.

Program Overview - This section is where you describe the program/project you are trying to fund through the grant.  Often, you will have to describe what it is, how you will evaluate the success of the program/project, a detailed budget, overall goals of the program/project, other funding sources you have or will be applying for, and a description of who will be impacted by the program/project.

Budget - You will need to give a detailed budget somewhere in the grant application where you list what you will use the funding to purchase.

I know this seems like an overwhelming process at first.  However, it does get easier and it is possible for teachers to write successful grants for their classroom and/or school.  As I said before, I do not consider myself an expert.  However, since 2010 I have written a total of 13 grants.  Of those grants, 7 were funded with amounts ranging from $1,500 to $12,000.  I'm happy to provide any additional help to those who are interested in learning more about grant writing or looking to start writing grants for their classroom and/or school.  I learned how to write grants from others and would be happy to pay it forward to anyone who is interested.