Organization in an Elementary Engineering Classroom

As I scrolled through Twitter this morning, I came across a great post on Engineering is Elementary (EIE) blog @EIE_org. There were some great tips and it reminded me of the routines and practices I have established in the elementary engineering lab at my school to manage the 22 classes, 572 students in kindergarten through 5th grade, I see on a weekly basis. Of course storage is always an issue, whether it's storing materials or storing projects. I had tried using student engineering notebooks off and on. I made a commitment to make it work three years ago. However, storing 572 student notebooks would use a lot of my existing storage space that I was not willing to surrender. Instead of using composition notebooks, I choose to use file folders. File folders make it easier to insert full page handouts and I don't use any storage space storing unused pages. I write the name of each student on their folder and color code grade levels. Each grade level has its own color. That way if a folder gets misplaced, I can at least identify the grade level it belongs to and then identify the class. In addition, students are allowed to decorate their folder covers as they have time.

In this photo, you can see how the covers of the folders have evolved.

In the inside front of each notebook, students in 3rd through 5th grade staple group roles. Inside the back of the folder, each previous year's work is stapled at the end of the year. If students are in 5th grade, that year's work is not stapled because they will be taking their folders with them at the end of the year. Stapling the previous year's work makes it easier for students to manage the loose file folder system.

Sometimes it is necessary to staple items back in, but not very often.

I have a heavy duty thick stapler for stapling previous year's work.

If a folder gets dropped, there are many fewer papers to reorganize. Our school has a maximum of 32 students in 4th and 5th. Those classes take up a little more room. As students folder fill up over the years, the folders are able to expand and hold the materials.

I lay out the folders at the beginning of class on the front counter of my room for all grades except kindergarten.  For kindergarten, I handout the folders once the students start building their projects. This gives me practice with their names and the cabinet is a little high for them to find their names. I have a basket at the back of my room that students stack their folders in at the end of class. This keeps them nice and neat until I can put them away.

Folders are on the cabinet to the right of the picture.

The folders are also a great way for me to take attendance. I use claim, evidence, and reasoning writing in some form with all my classes.  The engineering notebooks are a great place to house those pieces of writing, as well as, handouts for particular projects, rubrics, and other resources that may be relevant to a lesson. It is really nice to be able to use full size pages rather than having to resize for composition notebooks.Storage is also very easy. I just use on 4-drawer filing cabinet to store all the student notebooks. 

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.

Honeywell Educators at Space Academy 2018

Well, it's time. Time to apply for the 2018 Honeywell Educators at Space Academy https://educators.honeywell.com/application. Applications must be submitted by November 14, 2017. I applied last year and wasn't accepted. However, as I started my application this year, I was able to update my application from the previous year instead of starting from scratch.  Another nice feature to updating my application from last year is that I discovered some definite weaknesses in my previous application.

I encourage all interested educators to apply. It looks like an amazing experience and the application is not long. You have to upload an employment verification form, answer a series of questions, and submit three essay questions. Overall, it's not a bad experience and well worth any time and effort invested.  Good luck to all applicants!

2017 Power Up! Summit

My colleague, Cindy Hally, was recognized as one of the Lights On After School Champion for her work as librarian and holding makerspace for students before school. She was invited to attend the Power Up! Summit and bring a guest. We attended together and were able to have many powerful takeaways to use with our students throughout the school day and for after school groups.

Loved how they honored Cindy

She really is a champion for students

Some of our favorite sessions included how to help students in groups to develop belonging and become comfortable with other students outside of their known friends. The getting-to-know-you activity helps establish common connections between the group members by the leader sharing information about themselves until someone finds a connection with themselves. Then they link arms and the newly joined person explains the connection and begins sharing about themselves. By the end of the activity, all individuals have joined in with something in common. Another activity was using a deck of cards and having students take a card without looking at it. Then, without talking, students had to form groups that made an odd number. Once all groups had matched up, it was time to discuss the different sizes of groups and how it was not easy to always find a group. 

Another great session was the early coding activities. The Nampa team had several unplugged activities that develop student understanding of programming from the basic to more advanced skills. In addition, the coding of cup stacking was engaging and helped students understand the use of flowcharts in programming without actually labeling it as such. Cup Stacking Code! This example is much more complex than the one we were using. The simplified version could be used as early as pre-K. https://csedweek.org/files/CSEDrobotics.pdf

It's amazing what you can learn when you are open to new ideas!

Day 3 at #NASAMgUE

Another fantastic day of the trip. On Wednesday, we had a lot going on. Not only did we have a full day of learning, a tour of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL), and a test of our recently built accelerometers at Kemah Boardwalk, but some of our team members experienced authentic experiences the same as astronauts.

Day 3 Schedule

Falling Weight Apparatus

Building our accelerometers

Lunch at the cafeteria and a trip to the gift shop

Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) tour

Space suit staging area

Preparing our "astronaut" for our mini NBL

Testing our accelerometers on the rides at Kemah Boardwalk

Authentic STEM Experiences