The past week at The New Century School was devoted to the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Fair, and what an exciting, inquiry-filled week it was! This year’s was the biggest ever, with three classrooms participating—Dan McGonigal’s upper elementary students, Adriana Duprau’s lower elementary students, and even Teresa Jacoby’s K/1st students—each class taking a slightly different approach to their projects, but all loosely unified by the common theme of water.
Mr. McGonigal took the lead on this endeavor, as appropriate, given his specialization in this area. You may recall from a Meet the Teacher post last fall that he is part of the very first cohort in a pilot program at Towson University for STEM certification to earn the new Maryland State Department of Education endorsement, “Instructional Leader—STEM (Pre K‑6)” this spring.
He is passionate about the value of STEM teaching and with good reason. “STEM is an integrated instructional strategy—there are no borders or boundaries,” he said by way of introduction. STEM pursuits will ensure that students develop “21st-century skills”—those skills they need to navigate this exciting new era of globalization, connectivity, and continuous technological advancement. According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these skills include “critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration,” which intersect with social and media literacy, among other critical disciplines. You will see how these features were implemented throughout the TNCS Stem Fair projects as well as how they employed their engineering mantra: Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve, and Ask.
The week started with the upper elementary presentations on a chosen problem facing the Chesapeake Bay and how to act as “better stewards of the environment” by addressing the problem, such as litter or erosion. Taking a very sophisticated approach, these students presented their projects to attending parents electronically. During project execution, in fact, they used technology in various ways to document their process, such as videotaping and recording details regularly via Glogster. Their “glogs” are akin to electronic journals. Mr. McGonigal said, “This was very much a project-based learning experience for the students, who were in charge of their own direction. I was there to help, prompt, and encourage along the way as much as they needed.”
This slide explains what skills TNCS students would cultivate during the creation of their STEM Fair projects.
This drawing shows how a plant's root network acts to hold soil in place.
This seemingly random jumble of materials would be the makings of an artificially constructed plant to demonstrate the importance of plantlife to the Bay.
This student has used sponges to mimic the action of a plant's roots.
This water table simulated how groundwater and soil travel to the Bay.
This student logs on to begin presenting his project to parents in attendance.
Students rotated in groups to present their projects electronically.
Students were proud of their projects---and parents were proud of their kids!
This is an example of what parents saw in the electronic presentations. Captions walk the viewer through the student's process.
Success was achieved by several students, as evidenced by the final analysis of "clean :)"!
This one needs no caption!
Don't pollute the storm drains!
Algae overrun the Bay!
Save the Chesapeake Bay!
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Mrs. Duprau’s first- and second-graders presented their Life Cycle of a Plant projects on the following day inside the TNCS gymnasium. Their presentations took the more traditional approach with the trifold poster boards used by science fair presenters for decades. Note that these persistent, hard-working students took the “improve” part of the engineering design mantra very much to heart—be prepared to discreetly cover your inevitable chuckles if the kids are nearby. Scientists have feelings, too ;)!
And so it begins---work commences on STEM Fair projects!
Students worked hard for weeks to get their projects in shape for the STEM Fair!
Putting the presentation boards together allowed them to see their hard work come to fruition!
As you can see, students really enjoyed the process of delving into the Scientific Method!
This is photosynthesis in action, folks!
The lower elementary students got to practice presenting their projects to the upper elementary students!
The older students gave their younger colleagues their undivided attention!
Now this just melts the heart . . . this big brother proudly investigates his little sister's work!
The students got great practice in answering questions about their projects.
What a lively scientific scene!
And then came the parents!
Students were eager to present---even offering to walk the audience through their projects without having to be begged!
Students worked as a team to present, but each student was responsible for raising his or her own plant.
"I enjoyed this very much, and I like science!" said this very enthusiastic young scientist.
Here is my project! Cheeeeeeeese!
That design is simply genius! (Challenge: "To make a package for a plant so it can be watered and protected and grow.")
This project was created by "awesome me"!
Really nice work! Lots of art integration, too!
Plants are cool! (And so are these beautifully presented projects!)
The earnestness is just so admirable!
Read it and weep (in a good way).
Lowering cost was a big theme among these thrifty second-graders!
Oh dear. Well, that's grit in action!
See the Engineering Design Process cycle?
And here it is---the Life Cycle of Bean Plants!
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Finally, on STEM Fair Day 3, Mrs. Jacoby’s kindergarteners and first-graders took over the stage. Not yet being the consummate presenters that their older colleagues are, they used a video directed and produced by Mrs. Jacoby and Señora Tyson to debut their work (there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience; the video is wonderful). Parents were then asked to direct specific questions to the students about their projects. Although this was the first year that kindergarteners participated in the STEM Fair, you will see that they held their own amazingly well!
This was the very worthy problem Mrs. Jacoby's class chose to tackle.
Using largely recycled materials, students assessed what they needed for their given design.
Students used "aqua bucks" to purchase what they wanted to make their water filtration systems out of.
Students worked in teams of three or four to collaborate on a total of six water filtration system projects.
The initial water filtration systems produced results not quite potable, but these plucky students gained knowledge from their first try and dove back in!
Students recorded their process in Stem Fair journals. Integrating art makes these STEAM projects.
As part of the Engineering Design Process, students were asked to revise and adapt their initial designs based on results yielded by testing the first round of filtration systems.
Parent volunteers helped out immensely each afternoon to keep the class groups making forward progress.
They worked hard to record each step of the process in their journals.
Students had to rate the cleanliness of their water based on its turbidity (or as compared to the pitchers shown---from super dirty to clean).
Our water was "mildly clean"---love that eternal optimism!
Just look at how much cleaner the Round 2 filtration systems' water is! Good job!
The class eagerly awaits the start of their video---this is their first time seeing it, too!
Parents did a great job of asking just the right questions to elicit lots of excited discussion from the little scientists!
The STEM Fair journals underwent a makeover with rainbow hearts for audience consumption.
This student proudly displays his team's collective work.
Even the students' signatures got gussied up for the presentation!
Another proud, hard-working team poses with their display.
You have to wonder, why isn't all scientific research submitted in Rainbow Writing?! Soooooo much prettier!
Parents were impressed. These kids pulled off some amazing feats!
Surprise! Mr. Warren brought his primary class to see the presentations!
