This school year, our Technology Lab and Media Arts (Inspire Lab) specials classrooms have used a new curriculum called Engineering is Elementary (EiE), written by the Museum of Science in Boston. Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith's classrooms see all students grades 1st-5th weekly. Each grade has had a turn or will have a turn working through an engineering unit. In Mrs. Jones' Technology Lab, students are learning a computer science lesson that correlates to the engineering lesson that they are simultaneously doing in Mrs. Smith's Inspire Lab. The EiE mission is to create a generation of problem solvers through innovative STEM lessons.
So far this school year, students have studied environmental engineering by simulating oil spills and clean up solutions and used a block-based programming tool to design a digital ecosystem and problem solve. They have studied energy and created their own solar ovens. In the computer science lessons, students used a block-based programming tool to create characters and depict the challenges and choices of various types of energy.
Most recently third grade students are studying maglev systems and the properties of magnets and are programming micro-bits to communicate using LEDs. They will design their own maglev transportation system this nine weeks. First and second graders will have the opportunity to study pollination and light before the end of the year.
