My students need a center with Gear Builders, Magnetic Builders, and Builders Blocks where they can engage in much needed hands-on play activities while learning how things work in the STEM subjects.
The school at which I work is located in Brownsville, in Brooklyn, NY. I teach students who really like to come to school and enjoy learning. They clamor around to see the activities that I present and they share my excitement when we do projects. My students are challenged with severe cognitive disabilities, and many are on the spectrum. Most are minimally verbal or non-verbal, but appear to comprehend more than they can vocalize. The children are highly active, easily distracted, and enjoy hands-on activities to keep their attention and interest.
My Project
The center will include bins with a variety of building related objects that will encompass an applied approach to science, technology, engineering, and math concepts on the students’ levels. The students will learn while tinkering, building, and creating.
This STEM project will grant my students the opportunity to develop their early planning and designing abilities.
It will enhance their engineering skills while expanding their creativity levels, as the building materials can be combined and recombined in many different ways. Each of the various types of building items interlock in a different manner, and my students will strengthen their mathematical concepts of length, symmetry, and balance. The different shapes and various interlocking methods of the Slot-A-Shape and Gear Builders take block play to an increased level that requires more complex thinking. The students will attain problem-solving abilities in a more creative manner as they increase their mathematical and spatial skills. They will need to analyze the geometric shapes of the Interlocking Blocks and the Star Builders while forming larger, more advanced, geometric shapes.
During center time or after completing a task earlier than their peers, the children will be able to occupy their time with educational games and toys. They will utilize this center as a means to develop their interests as they actively affect their environment.
Nearly all 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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