Registration | Log In

Search Grants | Fulfilled Grants | More About Find It, Fund It, Florida

Share

Please share this page to help in fulfilling this grant.

Goal

The goal of this grant request is to begin integrating STEAM activities into the classrooms of Yulee Primary School, so that the hands-on learning opportunities extend beyond the once-per-week STEAM Lab visits, and become part of the students’ everyday lives. How? By providing STEAM Activity Kits that teachers can check out and use in their classrooms. 

What will be done with my students

Background: Approximately 1,000 students (kindergarten through second grade) visit the STEAM Lab each week at Yulee Primary School, where they engage in hands-on learning across STEAM’s five subject areas: science, technology, engineering, art, and math. These whole-group STEAM lessons engage students in active learning, utilizing hands-on materials ranging from plasma balls and geometric tiles to oil pastels and prisms. Each class attends STEAM Lab weekly for 25 minutes. We have just completed six weeks of engineering activities, which were an amazing success. The students were excited and focused as they developed their spatial sense and problem solving skills. By the end of the 6-week run, their skills had improved so much that, in the final session, kindergartners were performing as well as the first graders had on Day 1. Over the past few weeks, we’ve moved on to Whole-body Coding Activities and the Scientific Method (via catapult). Despite the fun they’re having learning about technology and science, our students are still talking about the engineering challenges. Through this grant, I hope to create a STEAM Kit Lending Library, providing students with the opportunity to pursue STEAM challenges in their own classrooms throughout the year.

In the STEAM Lab, I’ve already established a simple Lending Library by packaging the non-consumable materials we used during STEAM Engineering Labs (including clothespins, cups, craft stick catapults and pompoms, and recycled materials for making marble runs) and making these kits available for checkout by teachers. [See attached photo.] As I write this, our STEAM Lending Library is barely a week old. Many teachers are excited about using the kits to provide “brain breaks” during the upcoming standardized testing. I propose using the Nassau Education Foundation Teacher Grant to expand the Lending Library to include stand-alone professionally-designed STEAM kits that teachers can check out for use in their classrooms.

What will be done with my students?
Students will work individually or collaboratively using a variety of STEAM Kits created by Lakeshore. The kits include challenges appropriate for students in PreK through 2nd grade. Several are nearly language neutral, allowing pre-readers and English Language Learners to participate fully in the building activities. Other kits ask students to solve scenarios based on fairy tales and folklore stories, and provide language arts links that teachers can utilize. When not on loan, STEAM kits can be utilized at hands-on tables in the Media Center, making them available to an even wider group of students. Students will be observing, thinking, and planning. They will be designing, executing their design, and assessing its success. Finally, they will modify their plans, try again, and reassess. They will be practicing the skills they’ll need to succeed as adult in everyday life.

 

Benefits to my students

Benefits to my students:
When teachers bring STEAM Kits to their classrooms, students will get to shift gears for a moment, away from the usual computer-based and worksheet-based learning, to authentic hands-on problem solving. This benefits students in a variety of ways.

1. Computers and worksheets cater to visual and auditory learners. The STEAM Kits provide teachers with a means of reaching their tactile and kinesthetic learners as well.

2. Student who excel at computer/worksheet assignments are generally used to succeeding. When they face STEAM challenges, they get the opportunity to fail and try again, building up their skills of perseverance.

3. While attempting STEAM challenges, students are able to apply reading and math skills in a practical context. Not only do they cement these core skills, they also build confidence in their own abilities to succeed independently.

The teachers will also benefit from these STEAM Kits.

1. The kits are complete and require no preparation time or additional materials. As a result, they will add value to the classroom without placing a strain on the teachers’ already demanding schedules. The kits are designed to be used independently (after the teacher orients the students with a mini-lesson). This can free up the teacher to spend more time with students who need extra help.

2. The kits can provide fun, educational activities at week’s end as a reward for good behavior. They are also a great option for indoor recess on rainy days.

3. The kits can even help with classroom behavior problems, either as incentives for good behavior, or by helping students to focus better in whole group study - by giving them opportunities to use their hands and brains simultaneously in a competitive format beforehand. [I.e. Can you build a bridge to rescue the princess?]

Logistics: The checkout system will be administered by the leader of the YPS STEAM Lab with backup from the school Media Specialist. The expanded Lending Library will start with the 2017-2018 school year and will run indefinitely. With 20 kits in service, and a 2-week check out interval, maximum usage would include 40 classes a month (totaling 720 students). Eighteen 2-week intervals would bring that maximum up to 12,960 student interactions with the STEAM Kits during each school year. The Kits will be marketed through grade-level meetings and teacher email, in addition to regular contact with the Lending Library coordinator during weekly STEAM classes. Kits can be introduced briefly in STEAM Lab to whet the appetites of both students and teachers.
 

Budget Narrative

All of these STEAM Kits are Lakeshore materials and can be viewed at www.Lakeshorelearning.com. Because the formats will be similar, once teachers introduce a Kit type, they will be able to introduce others in the series with little drain on instructional time. For example, the 9 fairy tale and 3 folklore kits share similar formats, so they can be used in a series that extends for 24 weeks.

These kits, along with the Science Stations, Create a Chain Reaction, and Tree House Challenge, may require multiple visits for students to complete the challenge. Students can work independently or as partners, using collaborative efforts to solve the challenges.

The remaining kits use pictorial instructions to challenge students to build with manipulatives, including Blocks and Blueprints, Following Direction Building Set, and Geostix. These can be used in smaller time blocks, which may fit better into some classroom schedules.

The Following Directions Building Set, the Geostix, and the Create-a-Chain-Reaction Kits are specifically designed to work well with preK and Kindergarten, to ensure that we reach the youngest learners at YPS. These Kits, along with the rest, are designed to engage students up through second grade as well.

Several of the sets contain multiple STEAM kits, so the grant will provide 20 kits for the STEAM Lending Library. Thank you for your consideration. We're excited about expanding our new STEAM Lending Library!
 

Items