At Las Lomas students in Naida Cabrera’s first/second grade classroom are experiencing many hands on STEM activities. The pictures below are from a lesson where the students learned about Mechanical Engineering. Students were provided background information on how windmills work, pictures of windmills, sailboats, and made windsocks to find out how to make them move. They were then give materials and pictures of sailboats and, working in groups, were given the engineering design challenge to build a sailboat.
Students came up with many different solutions and throughout the process continued to test out and improve their designs. In engineering, failure prompts reflection and informs further learning. Which was the ‘best’ design? All of them! Students were collaborating, thinking critically and creatively, and communicating as they were empowered to engineer.