Excellent Engineers

School:: Golden Terrace Elementary
Subject:: Stem
Teacher:: Mattea Marks
Students Impacted:: 450
Grade:: K-5
Date:: July 16, 2015

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

License For Learning Plate Fund - $797.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 450

My goal was to help teachers incorporate STEM lessons into Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade classrooms using easy kits that each have a week long unit. Students were able to work together to solve STEM related problems and develop important skills needed in later grades and a love of science and math. Kits were used in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade classrooms. As the science coach, I modeled in one classroom in each grade level, and then the kits got passed to all of the classrooms at that grade level so that the teachers could teach the lessons to their classes. I got very positive feedback from all of the teachers and students. The students really enjoyed these lessons and learned a lot from them. I did not need to make any adjustments. Since these are reusable kits, we will have them to teach at teach grade level for years to come as well.

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

To help teachers incorporate STEM lessons into Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade classrooms using easy kits that each have a week long unit. Students will get to work together to solve STEM related problems and develop important skills needed in later grades and a love of science and math.

What will be done with my students

Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade will each have a different STEM kit that can be passed to each classroom for a week long STEM unit. All students will be able to be exposed to these important skills and have fun doing it.
Kinder Kit: Kindergartners will explore different slopes and surfaces of ramps. They need to help "Ron the Armadillo" solve some of his problems and figure out which surface and slope will be the best for Ron's ramp. They will be able to design and test their ideas and then graph and analyze their results.
1st Grade Kit: 1st graders will be able to help "Pam the Raccoon" with some problems that she needs to solve before she and her friends can go camping. Students design and test different materials to build her tent, figure out how many friends she can fit in her tent and explore elements of engineering by seeing which tent poles can bear weight.
2nd Grade Kit: 2nd graders will explore the warming effects of the sun and dive into engineering as they build and test different structures that can cover a sandbox to prevent it from getting too hot for the kids to play in. Students will test their designs and graph and analyze their results.

Benefits to my students

Primarily students will get the opportunity to solve complex science and engineering problems in groups with the teacher facilitating each step of the process. Students also get a first experience with going through steps of the scientific process and be able to acquire the skills needed to collect and analyze data that is needed in upper grades. Students get to use creative thinking skills to design items using primary engineering principles. These excellent kits provide teachers with everything needed to plan and execute these STEM lessons with their students very easily. These kits will also benefit our students for years to come because they are reusable with just a small purchase of refill items when needed.

Budget Narrative

I am ordering 3 Hand2Mind STEM kits. One for each grade level Kindergarten to 2nd. These kits have enough materials for the whole grade level to use.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	STEM Kit - Pam's Camping Adventure	$249.00
2	STEM Kit - Ron's Ramp Adventure	$249.00
3	STEM Kit - Sunny Sandbox Exploration	$299.00
	Total:	$797.00

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