Key points:
Elementary science lessons often follow a rigid, textbook-based approach in which students passively follow predetermined procedures and observe expected outcomes. This “cookbook recipes” style of teaching not only stifles creativity, but can also hinder the development of critical thinking skills.
Additionally, it can make students feel disconnected from the scientific process, because they are really just following instructions rather than actively exploring and discovering.
As a 1st-3rd grade science teacher, I wanted to create a completely different science lab experience for my young students. After looking at the options in the educational technology market, I discovered TinkRworksa STEAM educational platform that helps educators deliver hands-on, engaging learning experiences to students.
Here are seven reasons why we added the platform to our science teaching for elementary students:
1. It connected with our NGSS work. We started with a pilot for second graders and then expanded that pilot to include first graders. Second graders completed the Pampered Plant project, which is a STEAM-based activity in which youth create a customizable plant tracking system. Younger students used Smart Lamp, which found them combining electronics, programming and design to create a customizable lamp. Any time you introduce a project like this, you worry about how it will integrate with what you're already doing, but these projects connected very well with our existing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) work.
2. We broke the recipe book. We were able to move away from the recipe-like science lab approach used by most elementary science lab teachers and develop a more dynamic, engaging, and even surprising experience for our young students. And while the curriculum is structured logically, it also includes engaging design elements and leaves plenty of room for students to ask questions, solve problems, and problem-solve.
3. It gets students excited about learning. All students in grades 1-3 are currently using TinkRworks for science labs. With Pampered Plants, for example, they created colors and symbols for the LEDs and coded symbols to indicate whether their plants were too wet or too dry. They had to find the parameters for those conditions and test various scenarios. It was a lot of fun for them and they were very excited.
4. Helps students develop motor skills.. Through hands-on exercises, students also develop the motor skills necessary to screw on plates, work with electronic components, and manipulate electrical outlets and LED lighting. These are all skills that they would not have been able to acquire hands-on in the traditional classroom, where having 25 students using all the tools and parts at once would have overwhelmed the teacher.
5. I only have two hands. At the age level I teach, almost everyone needs my attention at the same time, but I only have two hands. Thanks to our STEAM platform, students are more engaged, active, and ready to help each other. Because of the way the boxes are set up and how the work is displayed in PowerPoint, I can direct traffic and let the students do the projects themselves.
6. Use only what you need. First graders use the platform twice a week, while other students use it four times a week. The program is designed to be flexible and allows me to “pick and throw” everything I want to use. TinkRworks could be its own curriculum because it really hits a lot of the benchmarks we want it to hit. It includes everything we need for a project: group work activities, laboratories, material for teachers and students, and reinforcement laboratories. There was very little I had to take outside of the platform's curriculum. It is omnipresent.
7. Makes students think about future careers. My students can now explore a whole new realm of careers, some of which may not even exist yet. If they have the skills to problem-solve, communicate, improvise, and try, they can do anything. No matter what the career asks of them, they will be able to handle it.
This is my 20th year as a science teacher here and based on my experience with this STEAM solution, I believe that all schools should offer science labs and use a platform like this to engage our youngest students in science, technology, engineering, and art, as well as mathematics.
These laboratories should align with the 21street century skills, computer science, coding and everything else we know the future will hold. This not only helps break down barriers to learning complex topics, but also opens up entirely new career prospects for our future workforce, and at a very young age.
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