brainstorm+2!!

I have spent some time thinking about how to really provide all students, preservice or inservice with a design technology experience which addresses the "E" in STEM Building has been fascinating to children of all ages for many years. Here is a way to address the need for kinesthetic learning that most schools take awey after kindergarten. One idea is to provide a course on Structures. Students would have the opportunity to build, read, learn about different structures. We could put blocks, Legos, Knex in the hands of the preservice and inservice teachers. This course might be offered on campus, a teacher institute or as an online course. Students would start to figure out some the of the foundational understandings of desining ad constructing a building. A couple of the questions they would address is, "What allows buildings/structures to stand up?" Why don't they fall down on a regular basis? They would have multiple experiences handling and building using many different materials, many of them simple straws, index cards, and other easily found materials. They could experience learning about tension and compression which are physical science concepts. Other concepts students might explore include learning about loads, dead and live. They would begin to understand that shape is very important when architects are thinking about and designing buildings.

Mathematics could be included using measurement and data collection.

This learning could become personal or place based for students as they took a close look at their homes, the UWA campus, the schools they attended and other structures in their home towns. Students would observe these structures, making entries in a science notebook that included observations about the varietyof structures when they consider the size, shape, material, and function, what is the intended use of each of the buildings.?.

Students will build structures using the simple materials mentioned above and then they will have opportunity to compare their own building with the structurs in the towns where they live.

Students will understand that there are many components that influence the structure and design of a building including its intended use.

A wonderful culminating experience might be the students actually participating in a building project such as Habitat for Humanity, maybe even being involved in designing and building a needed structure on the UWA campus...a garage, an addition to the Campus school, a storage structure, etc.

Kathy

Hope this idea is helpful :-)

I was also thinking about Video Game Design for Math and Science Concepts as an option for an in-depth study. I like the idea of a course for Structures. What would it count as? Who would be able to take it? Laurie