Help me give my students a chance to be creative problem solvers. By using the different STEAM kits by Lakeshore my students will have hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math experiences.
I have 24 kindergarten students who range in ages 5-6. I have a challenging class with some students having previous pre-school experience and some having never held a pencil or been in a structured school setting. Our class is diverse with African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian, and Filipino children. Most of my students are from military families. Their parents are serving our country and so there is a lot of mobility throughout the year. While they are in my classroom I want to give them the support, structure, and stability they need.
My Project
We want our students to be problem solvers. The best way to show kindergarteners how to be a problem solvers is through play. I want to provide them with Lakeshore STEAM games where the students will interact with a game and each other to solve problems.
Lakeshore STEAM kits will help my students will use the science design process: ask, explore, model, evaluate and explain to create roller coasters, cars, boats, bridges, buildings, and planes.
In the Engineer a Coaster game the students will design their own roller coaster and through trial and error, learn how the track position affects the disk—as it rolls and falls from track to track and into the goal box. With the Design and Play STEAM Kits my students will create and customize real-working vehicles. They will use the precut pieces to build each vehicle, customize it with their own craft materials and then put it into action. As kids test their creations, they’ll explore ways to fine-tune each vehicle—until they have a car that races, a boat that sails and a plane that soars! The Design and Build Engineer Centers will encourage open-ended building of actual bridges, vehicles and buildings.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Vilsack and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.