Ins and Outs of Elementary Engineering

I'm working on getting a little more organized for substitutes and such. I have started a document that gives general guidelines for different materials in the lab and classroom management techniques. My classroom setup is that of a specialist. I see 22 classes each week, 1st - 5th grades for one hour and kindergarten for a half an hour. There are four classes each of kindergarten through 3rd grade with a maximum of 24 students in each class. There are three classes each of 4th and 5th grades with a maximum of 32 students in each class. At each grade level there are approximately 96 students. This poses challenges for project storage and managing materials that are shared at a grade level and between grade levels.  Below is the link to the live document as I create it. Feel free to take a look and also check back for updates and improvements.

Elementary Engineering Notes

FabSLAM

FabSLAM is another great grant opportunity that was offered by the Idaho STEM Action Center. The STEM Action Center has done a fantastic job of providing educators with grants that provide training and materials. Recipients of the FabSLAM grant received two days of training, a 3D printer, and the ability to participate in a FabSLAM Showcase.

FabSLAM is a 3D design challenge. This year's theme is transportation. Students work over the course of eight weeks to identify a problem and rapid prototype a solution. Student teams create a web page that explains the design process, presentation, and a prototype that uses at least some 3D printing.

The school librarian and I teamed up to offer this opportunity to our students in 5th through 8th grades. We allowed students to create and submit teams they created. They could also let us know they were interested in participating and we would place them on a team. One of the biggest challenge we faced was when could we have meetings so any interested students could participate. If we have meetings before or after school, it limits who can participate due to parents being able to provide rides. Therefore, we established weekly lunch meetings that are optional and created a FabSLAM team on Microsoft Teams for students to be able to collaborate outside of school. I will share updates as time permits. Hopefully, our seven teams will enjoy and learn from the process.

FabSLAM Timeline

FabSLAM Guide

FabSLAM Rubric

Changes for 2017-2018 School Year

Changes for this school year include adjusting the student menu I used in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, continuing research or robotics in the classroom, applying for new opportunities, and implementing new ideas such as BreakoutEDU lessons.

The student menus I used last year were comprehensive and designed to cover a year's worth of instruction. Students were required to complete the main dishes and choose from the different side dishes. The main dishes were projects that we had typically completed whole class in previous years. My goal was to allow students to choose the order in which to complete projects as well as choosing areas of interest. However, for 3rd grade students, I ran into challenges of not enough direct instruction time for the different technologies. Also, not all students completed all the main dishes, which were projects I wanted all students to complete. It was also difficult for me to assist all students since there were so many projects going at one time. Students could ask classmates for assistance since they were all working on different projects.  This year, I will have the opportunity to offer more direct instruction and we will complete all projects whole class. The menus will offer students an opportunity to work on additional projects when they complete the main project the class is working on. This will allow all students to work mastery still and complete projects at their own pace. Additional days can be offered as time permits to fie students additional class time to work on menu projects.

Last year, we had a large team of teachers and students who participated in NASA MgUE. I would like to look for more opportunities to involve the students in real-world projects. One opportunity is the Astrosat competition http://astrosat.ardusat.com/. Students submit one minute videos about what they would hope to learn from a science experiment in space for a chance to be selected to participate in the awesome project. I also look for new grant opportunities that bring new and engaging experiences my students. We received a FabSLAM grant through the Idaho STEM Action Center that provides training to two staff members on the 3D printing competition and helps them facilitate at team of students to participate in the local and possibly national competition. Please comment if  you have other opportunities that would be appropriate for K-5 students.

Finally, I tried my first BreakoutEDU https://www.breakoutedu.com/ lesson this year with students in 1-5 grades. I had a different lesson for the students in 1-3 and a more challenging lesson for students in 4-5. All the classes loved the challenge and look forward to completing another BreakoutEDU lesson. My biggest challenge was when I had a lock that I reset and managed to foul it up. I improvised and all wen well until I could cut the lock off. At times it was challenging switching between the two different lessons since I only had one class setup for the lesson. However, with time I was able to minimize the amount of time it took and became very adept at switching the codes for the various locks, except the one that had to be cut off.

There are of course other changes that I implement as needed and opportunities arise. I will try to keep up my blog this school year so that I can share successes and challenges. I would love to hear what others are doing as well.

Exciting New Year!

The new year brings the continuation and the beginning of several exciting opportunities.  Many of them I have posted about previously, but there a couple of new items.  You may wonder why or how I end up involved in all of these different projects.  The reason is summed up best by a couple of short stories.  I was very excited after our team was accepted into the NASA Microgravity University for Educators.  I was talking with a colleague and stating my surprise at being selected.  She said "You always get it."  My response was quick and accurate, "No, I don't.  But I always apply."  There are so many fantastic opportunities out there for you and your students.  If you start looking for them, you might discover the same thing I did.  It becomes difficult to not apply.

Our team has received more information about our work with NASA's Microgravity University for Educators.  The next three months will fly by as the students prepare the SLED for deployment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston with the assistance of mentors from NASA.

Junior Botball after school groups will be starting up next week.  This will be our first big run through using them.  When we went to the training on the Botballs, we used mini iPads for the programming. The screen size was fine, but it was difficult to type in the code.  We have purchased some bluetooth keyboards that should make it easier for the students.  I will share more with you once we get up and running next week, weather permitting of course.

Next week also brings the start of Idaho TECH Challenge.  This is a STEM competition sponsored by the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium (ISGC). Students in 4th through 6th grades work together as teams to design and construct Mars Rover models out of Lego® and non-Lego components. The teams test their models at an Idaho TECH Engineering Design Competition (EDC), held in Pocatello or Moscow, Idaho.  This is our third year participating.

Our school's makerspace team will be sharing the activities we use during the STEM Matters event at the state capitol on January 24.  We have some student volunteers that will be sharing information and demonstrating for those in attendance.

During winter break, our school received notification that we had been awarded the Wonder Media grant.  This grant covers the cost of equipment, software, and training necessary to engage students with creative writing.  The fourth grade team will be using it with their students, and I will be technical support.

I have also been making travel plans for attending the 2017 NCCE Conference in Portland.  The conference will be held in March.  During registration, I had difficulty choosing my sessions because there are so many amazing options available.  I will be teaching a 3D printing workshop on Wednesday morning of the conference. It will walk participants through the free City X Project curriculum and teach about printing and troubleshooting.  If all goes as planned, participants will be able to take home a clay model and their finished 3D print.

Finally, in May, my two oldest children will be graduating with their undergraduate degrees.  I'm so excited for them to continue their journey and so happy I get to share that moment with them.

Conferences

Although it is difficult to be out of the classroom during the school year, I am excited to be attending the Regional NSTA Conference in Portland, OR in November.  This will be my first time attending an NSTA conference,  I am looking forward to all the learning opportunities and networking with other education professionals.  In addition, the timing for this conference does not require me to miss any days with the students, which is always a good thing.

In March, I will be presenting at the 2017 NCCE Conference in Portland, OR.  For this conference, I will be teaching a workshop, as well as, learning new instructional and integration strategies.  My workshop will involve participants working through an abbreviated City X Project curriculum, creating clay models, and designing their 3D solutions on Tinkercad.com.  Although I will have to miss some time with my students, I am looking forward to working with other educators and bringing new ideas back to my classroom.

I'll make sure to share all the great ideas I gather during the course of both conferences.  Keep watching for updates, additional conferences, and other professional opportunities.

3D Printing City X Project

Now in my third year of teaching engineering to kindergarten through fifth grade students, I find that I use more projects with my third through fifth grade students.  It is difficult to complete projects in a timely manner because I see the students once a week for an hour-long class.  Larger projects usually take place over a minimum of two months.  The most recent project was completed by fifth grade students.  They completed our version of the City X Project.

This project was fantastic for educators just starting to integrate 3D printing into their classroom.  All the support resources are ready to go.  The project entailed the students receiving a problem from a citizen in City X.  Students brainstormed original solutions and chose one idea to develop and refine. The provided student workbook demonstrated sketching a model in 3D.  Students followed sketching with building a clay model.  I measured out the clay on a scale to limit the amount of clay needed, make it equal for all the students, and minimize the size of the 3D prints to assist with quick printing.  After their clay model was complete, students made various measurements needed to create their build in a simple CAD program (tinkercad.com).  The end goal was to have the clay and printed model be as similar in shape and size as possible.

This was the first time I used the 3D printer or a CAD program in the classroom.  My fifth grade students, all 90 of them, worked independently.  This was one of the reasons I wanted to limit clay and 3D model size.  Printing all the projects was definitely the most difficult aspect of the project.  I created a free Tinkercad account under my email.  All the students used the same account.  This allowed me to easily access and download their completed files for printing.  I used a naming system that made it easy to search all the builds and locate them for modification and download, studentfirstname_teachername_cityx.  I plan on adding the grade level into the name since I will be using it next with fourth grade students followed by third grade students.

The students' responses when comparing their clay and printed models was amazing.  The emphasis on measurement and converting between cm and mm was a strong component in developing the CAD version from the clay model.  I had some technical difficulties with Tinkercad over the school's wifi.  I don't know if it was due to the use of a single account, school wifi, or issues at Tinkercad.  I tend to think it was the wifi because at times it would work fine and other times during the same day I had many issues.  Tinkercad was the best CAD program I could find for my novice designers.  Tinkercad was intuitive and easy to learn.

I will be starting this project with the fourth grade students after winter break.  Third and fourth grade students will work in pairs for the project.  Next year, they will experience the project individually.