Lincoln School students in grades 5-8 spent two full days planning and building prototypes in a hands-on engineering effort to solve specific problems at the school they’d previously identified.
STEM Day (science, technology, engineering and math) on October 13-14 involved involved 270 students as well as dozens of faculty and parent volunteers. During the month of September, students brainstormed about problems in the school that could be solved using the engineering design process. A group narrowed the list to the following four:
- How do we cover the walkway between the school and the gym so we can get to class without getting wet? Similarly, how do we create portable shade for lunchtime?
- How do we keep the soccer ball from going into the street when it is kicked toward the net close to the road?
- How do we find places in the building and ways to store things that are too big to fit into lockers?
- How do we create portable seating so more kids can eat lunch outside and have a place to sit?
Students consulted with Lincoln Building Inspector Dan Walsh and Parks and Recreations Director Dan Pereira to learn about building codes and how the field in front of the school is used by multiple town groups. They then brainstormed, measured, drew, evaluated, got feedback and built.
Smaller groups of students created prototypes in the classrooms. They then presented them to their peers for feedback and revised their original designs. Toward the end of the day, all four grades gathered in the auditorium, and one project from each problem was presented to the school.
Because the students had chosen their problems, they were excited and engaged from the outset. Along with basic engineering, they had to consider things like budgeting, aesthetics (for example, specifying a stained-glass type of plexiglass roof for the gym walkway so colors could shine through) and sustainability, such as incorporating solar panels as a way to get extra benefits from a project. At the very end of the day, Principal Sharon Hobbs invited students who really loved their designs to come see her to talk about how some of their work might come to fruition.
The prototypes are temporarily on display in the school library so the students can benefit from seeing other people’s thinking. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”45″ gal_title=”STEM Day 2016″]
