My students need hands on science building materials that will aid them in their discover of motion and design. We need a STC Program: Motion and Design Two-Use kit.
My classroom has one motto, hands on. We try to find a way to make learning as kinesthetic as possible! School should be an experience for each child and we try to make it that way! I loved working with the kinects kits and having kids build their own concepts of Newton's laws!
My fifth grade students are so inquisitive and love making new revelations about our world.
Their curiosity is usually outdone by their jubilation for conquering missions and gaining insight on various projects. They are all high energy and wonderful caring students.
My Project
With the Motion and Design Kit students will gain a better understanding of the fundamental force governing our world through building and experimenting using kinects building tools. They will have missions that they must complete and will follow the scientific model to produce a product that will meet the requirements of each mission. There they must modify and test each vehicle or contraption to gain insight on a fundamental forces or physics concept. One mission may deal with opposing forces and the students will use weights on both sides of their vehicles, while another mission may deal with friction and would require the students to see how tire tread is a beneficial form of friction. They will have science journals and will be required to approach each mission with a new job, whether it is engineer, project manager, or any of the other tasks they may encounter working with a team at their future place of employment.
I have found that STEM is best utilized when done with hands on activities.
Students that are given a chance to learn science especially motion and design will tend to gravitate to new opportunities that may involve some form of math or science. They so often only get science from a book or video, when they have a hands on option and see what an engineer does, it plants the seed and can get them considering the STEM field earlier and earlier.
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