As elementary STEAM educators, we have both learned that the best way to teach science is through hands-on exploration where lessons are both rigorous and relative to all of the students in the classroom. Incorporating robotics, coding, and engineering into these lessons is a great way to engage students and inspire them to apply their learning.
It can be something of a challenge to incorporate this hands-on learning into some science units, such as earth and life science. For example, many life science units focus on looking at plants and animals and reading about their environments—leaving out the integral hands-on engineering and robotics. Here are two tech-infused lessons that have increased student engagement and brought elementary earth and life sciences to life.
Teaching earth science and collaboration in the ‘Windy Day’ project
In Barb’s 1st-grade classes, STEAM lessons revolve around wind and weather. One example is the “Windy Day” project. We start by talking about the science vocabulary. It’s first grade, so we focus on questions like what’s hot, what’s cold, what does wind feel like, and what does it look like outside?
Related content: How our school transitioned from STEM to STEAM
To simulate a windy day, students use art materials like streamers and feathers and attach them to a KIBO robot. They code the robot by creating sequences of programmable wooden building blocks that have commands printed on them, and then use the robot itself to scan the blocks and start their program. They also sometimes use the robot’s sound module to record their own windy day sounds. They make silly sounds of wind rushing or sometimes record their voice telling the story of the robot. These recordings become part of their program.
Related Content:
eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide
The eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide is here! It features strategies to help you integrate STEM, STEAM, and makerspace education into classrooms, and it offers a look at how these tools engage students and give them valuable skills. A new eSchool News Guide will launch each month–don’t miss a single one!
The first time the robots come out, we set a timer, and they have two minutes to put it together with no directions. It’s amazing what 1st-graders can figure out in two minutes! We intentionally don’t give every student their own robot. It’s usually three in a group, and everybody has a job.
A lot of our work is about getting kids to know what it sounds like and looks like to work as part of a group.
Before the lesson, we go through strategies for how to make decisions as part of a group, and at the end, we ask them to reflect on why they built their KIBO the way they did, and why the program they coded made their construction look and act like a windy day.
Helping robot animals survive the winter
One of Katie’s favorite and most engaging 1st-grade life science lessons combines animal survival and coding the KIBO robot. The unit starts with a compelling, standards-based question: “How do animals survive in the winter?” Students brainstorm and construct explanations by sharing ideas and drawing models. It’s also helpful to contrast their animal survival techniques and adaptations with humans’ solutions to surviving in the winter.
Next, students get to the best part: applying their knowledge by coding a robot. First, they decorate their robots as winter animals, such as arctic foxes or polar bears, which they have previously researched. They get together with partners and choose an animal to draw. They then draw it using white crayons on blue paper and attach it to their robot. The class discusses what food and shelter their particular animal needs to survive a cold winter, then students create a model shelter using paper to make a dome where their “animal” can sleep.
The class then talks about how animals use body parts like arms and beaks to collect food. Students add arms and claws or beaks to their robot using paper, tape, and binder clips. Then they create a sequence and program their robots to scoop up the model food they created out of paper and bring it to their shelter.
They set a timer, and the animals need to bring food inside their domes within a certain amount of time before they “freeze.” It challenges students to work out an algorithm with their KIBO blocks and to scan the blocks to get their robot animals to move a certain way in a short amount of time. As a bonus, there can be predator animals added to the game as well.
For assessment and to communicate their learning, students use an interactive media app called Seesaw. They record themselves discussing what they learned in the lesson, and they share a picture or video of their project. This is an effective way to check for student understanding, especially in large classes of active students.
Inspiring collaboration and engagement
Using open-ended tech tools allows students to understand life and earth science topics through true representation. As elementary teachers, we both love blending coding with valuable science concepts. Every project students create ends up looking different because they don’t have step-by-step instructions. Instead, they have the creative freedom to show what they understand.
At the end of every class, students share what worked and what didn’t work. It helps them find alternative solutions to common problems by collaborating with their peers. It also allows both teachers and students to see patterns in successes and challenges. It’s a great way for students to learn coding, life science, and life skills from each other.
- How educators can navigate AI-driven plagiarism - September 28, 2023
- Digital tools are sticking around–here’s the right way to leverage technology - September 27, 2023
- 10 key CoSN back-to-school resources for edtech leaders - September 26, 2023