A Dispatch From the STEM Lab

The STEM Lab has been a flurry of activity over the last month. So much so in fact, that I have neglected the blog. So, in the spirit of pulling my act together, here is a run down on what each grade level has been working on since I last managed a post.

Kindergarten & first grade:

These two grade levels usually work on similar units, though adapted for their different abilities. After completing the Math Stories unit, these grades are getting a week of creative computing using the Scratch Jr. programming language. Code.org teaches programming concepts and algorithmic thinking through a series of puzzles and is a great resource for getting students started with coding. Scratch Jr. is an open-ended coding environment where students code what they imagine rather than a solution to someone else's puzzle. For the kindergarten students this week is an introduction to Scratch Jr. and the idea of creative computing. Most of the first graders are returning to Sinclair and worked with Scratch Jr. last year, so this week is more of a next steps series of lessons. Later in the year, both grades will make Scratch Jr. projects that address a prompt.

Second grade:

The 2nd graders have been spending a lot of time working on their cardboard construction skills during rounds 2 and 3 in the STEM Lab. Cardboard is the most common building material in the lab, but it definitely takes some time for students to become familiar with its quirks. Round 2 had them planning and building marble mazes from single ply cardboard. The focus of this was learning to use the L-brace in their builds. My other goal, and honestly the main one, was to give them some practice using old fashioned white liquid glue to join the pieces. The glue sticks that have become a staple of elementary school supply lists are sadly not up to the task when it comes to the projects we get into in the lab. My hope in starting them on white glue early is to have fewer frustrated calls for tape when they get to the kinds of things we do in 4th and 5th grade. Round 3 continues our work with cardboard, this time using slots and friction to join pieces. The theme is lifted from my summer journey to the Galapagos Islands. Each day we learn about a different species unique to the islands and then make slotted cardboard body parts to build 3D models of the day's animal. Another part of round 3 is the students' first Skype-a-Scientist experience. Skype-a-Scientist connects working science professionals from a variety of disciplines with teachers in K-12 classrooms. Students get the opportunity to have a discussion with an actual living scientist and the conversations and questions are always amazing.

Third grade:

The switch from 2 week to 1 week magnet rotation blocks, a symptom of Sinclair's increasing enrollment (yay!) and the pandemic (boo!) induced shift to 6 week grading cycles, has been a challenge. The lab was founded on having 2 weeks to complete big projects. This was less of an issue last year when the lab could not operate as usual. However, this year, as things return to normal I am working to adapt those big projects to the constraints of my new time frame. The solution for some projects has been to split them between rounds. Third grade's round 3 and 4 work is an example of this. During round 3 the students selected a grade level science concept to research. They took notes and then planned and created a Scratch project to share their learning. One of their constraints was that the project had to run off of key press events. This set them up for round 4 which has them creating an interactive poster that is used to control the Scratch project created in round 3. This use of a physical creation to operate a digital project is made possible by a device called Makey Makey. (Make + Key = Makey.)This works like a typical USB keyboard, though with fewer keys available. It makes it possible to use any conductive material to trigger a key press. After creating their posters, students added brass fasteners and copper tape and attached these to the Makey Makey. The culmination of this 2 part unit is the 3rd graders getting to share their projects with a visiting 2nd grade class.

Side Note:

Having upper grade students share their projects with lower grade classes is something I have really missed the last year + and I am really excited to be able to start bringing it back.

Fourth grade:

As students move up through grade levels in the lab, the projects become more of an integration of physical and digital elements. (The 3rd grade project described above is one example.) Round 4 saw the 4th graders taking a deep dive into the programming concept of broadcasts in Scratch. This was a purely digital project, but necessary to projects that will combine the digital and physical worlds. The emphasis in this unit was creativity. It is a lamentable condition of our current educational system that students are conditioned early on to believe that there is a single correct answer or response to any question or task set to them by a teacher. I see the lab's purpose as countering that mindset and helping students develop their creative confidence. My prompts in the lab are purposely vague and open ended because I do not want 22 of the same thing from each class. I was generally pleased with the results from this project which can be viewed in this studio. I was especially proud of the work done by students who are new to Sinclair this year, most of whom are completely new not just to Scratch, but to computer programming in general.

Fourth grade's round 3 project was one of those that combines digital and physical elements. First students learned to use the Music Extension in Scratch. This set of commands lets students compose music played by different instruments and backed by various drums. They also used the Makey Makey Extension which is a set of key press events, but also allows for combinations of key presses to be used as an event. The students created beautifully cacophonous programs, many with accompanying visual effects. Next they used cardboard, construction paper, and copper tape to build a 5 key keyboard to play their program using the Makey Makey. My favorite part of this unit ended up being something completely unplanned. One week a student discovered that the keyboard they built could be used with any Scratch project that uses key presses. That class period ended with everyone playing Super Mario and Geometry Dash on their handmade keyboards. One student exclaimed, "It works with EVERYTHING!". Ah, the joy of discovery... The music projects are in this studio. 

Fifth grade:

Rounds 1 through 3 for 5th grade were built on the experiences I had in the Galapagos Islands last summer. That expedition was made possible by Fund for Teachers, an organization that supports self-designed teacher summer professional development. When I applied for the Fund for Teachers grant, pre-Covid, the projects that were central to my implementation looked quite a bit different. That made this project feel a bit more experimental than it might otherwise have. Still, I think all in all it turned out well. I did find though that a project stretched over 3 magnet rotations is a bit of a stretch in terms of attention and motivation. 

Students began by researching the Galapagos Islands. I provided them with my travel blog, videos, and pictures. We covered how the islands were formed, how the various speices arrived there, and how they have adapted over time to live in the islands. In round 2 students selected an animal, plant, or idea to focus on and conducted more research on that specific topic. Most students chose an animal, though some selected ideas like "human impacts on the Galapagos" or "invasive species" which was really great to see. They used their research to create a Scratch project that shared what they had learned form their research. They were instructed to make something akin to a virtual museum room about their topic, a digital tour guide of sorts set to begin speaking on a key press. For the final round students built a paper and cardboard model of their digital museum room. They used copper tape to make the door to the room a switch that they connected to their program with the aforementioned Makey Makey. Opening the door to the room triggered to virtual tour guide to begin telling the user about the room's contents. The digital rooms mostly turned out really well. Those projects are in this studio.

Check back in a few weeks to see how 4th and 5th grade did with Micro:bit. Kindergarten and first grade will be programming Robo-mouse soon, while 2nd and 3rd have new adventures in computer science on the horizon as well.