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Mrs. Spillers' Classroom Edit display name

  • Redbud Elementary School
  • Round Rock, TX
  • More than a third of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

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Students will naturally engage in engineering practices as they play in and investigate the world around them. I would like to help students put language to these practices so that they may begin to see themselves as engineers. To do this, I am going to start an after school club for fourth and fifth grade students called Engineers, Today and Tomorrow. In this club, students will go through the Engineering Design Process to investigate a problem, design a product that could solve the problem, test said product, and reiterate as necessary to achieve the goal. Example projects include designing a kite that will fly, designing a water purification system, or designing a working flashlight. Research tells us that as little as 10% of the engineering field is made up of women, and English Language Learners face similar obstacles, due to the vast amount of academic language required to fully participate in engineering contexts. However, if we can help students acquire both language and self-efficacy, we can drive more talented young scientists into careers in the STEM fields. Because these projects will be in a small group, with open-ended prompts and the opportunity for creative problem solving, students will be empowered to view themselves as engineers. Even though the club will be conducted after school, all projects will be tied to the Texas state standards (TEKS). The projects will address TEKS in science, math, reading, and writing. My ultimate goal is that none of my students will ever grow up to say, "I'm just not a science person." There is a scientist in all of us. Engineers, Today and Tomorrow will draw it out of them!

About my class

Students will naturally engage in engineering practices as they play in and investigate the world around them. I would like to help students put language to these practices so that they may begin to see themselves as engineers. To do this, I am going to start an after school club for fourth and fifth grade students called Engineers, Today and Tomorrow. In this club, students will go through the Engineering Design Process to investigate a problem, design a product that could solve the problem, test said product, and reiterate as necessary to achieve the goal. Example projects include designing a kite that will fly, designing a water purification system, or designing a working flashlight. Research tells us that as little as 10% of the engineering field is made up of women, and English Language Learners face similar obstacles, due to the vast amount of academic language required to fully participate in engineering contexts. However, if we can help students acquire both language and self-efficacy, we can drive more talented young scientists into careers in the STEM fields. Because these projects will be in a small group, with open-ended prompts and the opportunity for creative problem solving, students will be empowered to view themselves as engineers. Even though the club will be conducted after school, all projects will be tied to the Texas state standards (TEKS). The projects will address TEKS in science, math, reading, and writing. My ultimate goal is that none of my students will ever grow up to say, "I'm just not a science person." There is a scientist in all of us. Engineers, Today and Tomorrow will draw it out of them!

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