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.

STEM vs STEM Education

 “Most, even those in education, say ‘STEM’ when they should be saying ‘STEM education,’ overlooking that STEM without education is a reference to the fields in which scientists, engineers, and mathematicians toil. Science, mathematics, and technology teachers are STEM educators working in STEM education” (Sanders, 2009, p. 20).  

I think this quote describes the biggest change in my understanding of STEM Education.  Often times, I am asked "what type of STEM curriculum are you teaching at your STEM school?"  The answer to this question is not quite so simple.  In my mind, STEM is not a content area to be taught through a special curriculum.  We are not adding an additional content area for our teachers to teach.  Our school's focus on STEM Education is more a change in the way we approach teaching and learning for both students and teachers.

So what exactly does this mean?  At the beginning of this school year, our teachers sat down and developed a list of what you might see and hear in our school with a focus on STEM Education.  Below is what we developed.

At Benton STEM Elementary, you will see and hear...

Students...

-        Exploring

-        Taking risks

-        Explaining and justifying their thinking

-        Questioning each other

-        Responding to each other’s questions

-        Investigating

-        Learning from mistakes

-        Collaborating

 Teachers...

-        Questioning

-        Facilitating discussions

-        Taking risks

-        Using data

-        Empowering students

-        Giving think time

-        Prompting

-        Modeling thinking

-        Exploring

-        Using the 5E model of instruction

-        Learning from mistakes

            -        Collaborating      

I would also add purposeful integration of content areas to the list for teachers.  Now, I know many teachers would say this list describes what good teaching should look and sound like in any classroom, not just at a STEM school.  I completely agree with that statement.  I believe the teaching and learning behaviors found at my school include best educational practices and cover instruction in all content areas (not just literacy and math).  I hope to revisit this topic in a later post.

I think when we say we teach STEM at our building, we are actually saying we teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  I would hope every school should be able to make that same statement.  However, what our school is doing differently is changing how we teach these areas through purposeful planning, reflection, integration, and inquiry-based instruction. 

References:

Sanders, M. (2009). STEM, STEM education, STEMmania. The Technology Teacher, 68(4), 20-26.