October 2011

Learning Liftoff

An Alexandria, Virginia, elementary school joins a nationwide trend in teaching young students engineering—perhaps improving U.S. competitiveness but also simply demonstrating the fun of it all.

BY EVA KAPLAN-LEISERSON

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Three girls stand in the grass on their elementary school playground, staring intently at the ground. The foot of one fourth-grader pushes a blue metal foot pump vigorously up and down. The pump attaches to a long coil of yellow rubber tubing, which connects to a rubber stopper plugged into a upside-down two-liter soda bottle. The bottle rests on plastic fins, and water fills the top. Bubbles appear as the student pumps.
 
This is the girls' rocket, and they are trying to make it fly. The three fourth-graders attend the after-school science, technology, engineering, and math enrichment club at Cora Kelly STEM School in Alexandria, Virginia. While the elementary school's curriculum focuses on STEM subjects, the real hands-on engineering happens after hours.

The inclusion of the subject in Cora Kelly's daytime and after-school curriculum reflects a growing trend nationwide. According to a 2010 New York Times article, "Studying Engineering Before They Can Spell It," school districts across the country are adding engineering lessons to even the lowest grades, in order to help students better compete in a global economy.

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NSPE Makes 'Cool Stuff' With Local Grade Schoolers >> NSPE Partnership Receives Federal Grant to Expand Engineering Club >>

But these girls have experienced setbacks. First, in designing their rocket—which originally was attached to a parachute—they mistakenly punched holes in the bottle to attach the shopping bag with string. They were forced to start over. In the testing phase, after removing the parachute because they realized it dragged down the rocket, there was little water left to fill the bottle on their second attempt. The boys had used most of the rest.

Still, they persevere. Each girl takes a turn, pumping 15 or 20 times as pressure increases inside the rocket. Anticipation builds. The boys circle around, offering advice. Finally, blast off! The rocket flies into the air and over the students' heads. The girls' rocket, filled with the least water, goes the furthest—yards across the playground and feet above the roof of the one-story school building.
 
Fourth-grader Melissa explains what the students learned: "Less water is really okay, because there's more air to push it out and make it shoot forward." Her collaborator Amirah adds, "And you can learn from your mistakes…. Engineers learn from their mistakes."
 
In January 2010, NSPE launched Cora Kelly's original after-school engineering club, with a Society staff person running a weekly group with about 15 second- and third-graders. The majority of Cora Kelly students are underrepresented minorities, with most living at the poverty level. The school hoped such partnerships would encourage the children to attend college and consider majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math subjects.

A rocket blasts off unexpectedly as Haskins' fourth-graders help a fifth-grade group check its tubing.

STEM Plus leader Andrae Jones works with two third-grade girls building with LEGO robotics.

NSPE won an Outstanding Partner in Education award from the Alexandria City Public School system for its work on the club. Wanting to expand, the Society, the school system, and the Virginia Department of Transportation collaborated on a grant application through the Federal Highway Administration. The school was awarded $99,000 for the 2010–11 school year from the FHWA's Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Education Program. That initiative aims to improve the preparation of students, especially women and minorities, in STEM through curriculum development and transportation-related activities.
 
STEM Plus launched in fall 2010 as a two-day-per-week program divided into four 10-week units: robotics, green streets, aeronautics and rocketry, and trains and boats. The grant enabled Cora Kelly to grow the program to 100 students; add a program manager, curriculum developer, and 10 activity leaders; and fund supplies and transportation for field trips. NSPE continued to serve in a consultation role.
 
The Big Picture
In recent years, awareness has grown nationwide about the importance of engineering education for younger students. A 2009 report from the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council found that in the previous 15 years, the subject had made slow but steady progress into elementary and secondary school classes. According to Engineering in K–12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects, about six million children and teens had taken engineering coursework since the early 1990s, compared to about 56 million students in K–12 in 2008 alone.

Some elementary schools even focus their curriculum on engineering, such as A. J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering in Greenville, South Carolina; Marvin Camras Children's Engineering Elementary School in Chicago; and Mueller Aerospace and Engineering Discovery Magnet Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas. Other elementary schools, like Cora Kelly, add engineering in with other science, technology, and math topics.
 
But not everyone was immediately appreciative of engineering's value for elementary students. Christine Cunningham founded the Boston Museum of Science's Engineering is Elementary program and curriculum in 2003 and explains that when the program began, "people thought we were somewhat crazy for talking about engineering at the elementary level." There weren't many people emphasizing the subject for children that young, she says, so the effort had to start with why doing so made sense.
 
The page "Why Teach Engineering to Children?" on EIE's Web site lists reasons such as children's natural interest in building and taking things apart, engineering's ability to motivate students to learn math and science concepts and develop problem-solving skills, and the need for engineering and technological literacy in the 21st century. (See p. 14 for more on these points and a new effort to incorporate engineering in K–12 science.)
 
Cunningham points out that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measures student achievement in grades 4, 8, and 12, is adding engineering and technology in 2014. NAEP results, known as "The Nation's Report Card," will include those subjects for eighth-graders due to their growing importance in education and society.

The Engineering is Elementary director believes that children naturally engineer, but we educate it out of them by telling them there's only one right answer and failure isn't acceptable. But physically engaging students in creating or improving a product helps them realize their own efficacy, Cunningham says.
 
K–5 Engagement
At Cora Kelly, in one of the lower grade classrooms, 14 kindergarteners and first graders are building with LEGOs. "Anthony made something cool," says first-grader Hunter, who is missing some of his front teeth. "It's a robot," explains Anthony, a first-grader wearing a red baseball t-shirt.

The vehicle looks like a cross between a plane and a helicopter, with a thick front body, thin LEGO wings, wheels, and a tail. "I think I can help make it fly," says Hunter. "Come on, we're all going to help you. Ever heard of teamwork?"
 
Computer lab teacher Tamika Barbour, who co-runs this STEM Plus group, asks what some of the other students are building. "We don't know," says one. "That's okay," she replies. "I want you to explore different pieces and how they fit together." Some structures don't quite look like anything, but the students are having fun.

More than 50 kids joined the waiting list for the 100 spots in the 2010–11 STEM Plus club, the most popular after-school activity by far. With a total of about 360 students in the school, nearly half participate in the program or would like to. Principal Brandon Davis observes that school attendance is better on the days when the club meets.
 
Although the school day curriculum is also focused on science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM Plus "gives [students] a kinesthetic opportunity to learn and expand their knowledge," he explains. That's especially important when high-stakes testing has left less time for hands-on approaches. He hopes the club will strengthen both student interest in and aptitude for math and science.
 
Down the hall, the third-graders are working with LEGOs too. They've built LEGO robotics using blueprints that come in the kits, and now they're connecting them to the computer. The software program enables them to order icons for different actions, and then those actions will complete when students hit the play button. For instance, one icon will make a propeller spin.
 
A few boys are gathered around the computer, trying to figure out the motion sensor component attached to their Beyblade, a type of spinning top, which currently isn't spinning. "I wonder why it didn't work?" says teacher Andrae Jones. "Could it be we didn't do the proper steps? Go fix it."
 
Ryan Zehren, a gym teacher who likes math and science and also works with this third-grade group, explains that trial and error is important for the students: letting them attempt projects, talk about what didn't work, and try again.
 
The teacher shows off the students' journals. Before they start projects, they write up ideas. One student wrote, "Today I think we are going to use [construction and building toys] K'NEX. I would like to build a robot. I think it will be challenging." Later, he added, "I couldn't build a robot, but I had a lot of fun. I got to build half a windmill and an automobile." He explains that he didn't build a robot because he "found more amazing things."
 
According to Zehren, students talk in STEM Plus about what they're doing in the classroom. Both components complement each other. "You can just see the joy in their eyes when [they're] doing stuff," he adds.
 
In science teacher Judith Haskins' STEM Plus classroom, fourth-grader Elijah shows off a large submarine that's more than a foot long. He explains that it took him and his three other team members three days to build with K'NEX. He picked this project because "it was the hardest," he says with a small smile. "And actually we thought it was really interesting. It looked really cool." Later, the boys try to make the sub float in a tub of water. Haskins doesn't help them when their efforts fail. She tells them they're going to have to do some research.
 
"They think logically," explains the teacher. "They really think like engineers. When they get it, oh my goodness…. You have to say, 'Quiet down, this is a school.'" Working in the STEM Plus program is her favorite part of the day, she says, because she can get out of the way and let the students learn on their own.
 
Extending the Learning
In addition to hands-on activities, the STEM Plus club also incorporates guest speakers and field trips to help students connect what they're learning to the outside world. For instance, employees from a local car dealership explained green and hybrid technology as part of the green streets unit. "They did such a great job, even our kindergarten students could explain the fundamentals of hybrid," says Suzette Adams, guidance counselor and STEM Plus program manager at Cora Kelly.
 
In addition, members of the Virginia Department of Transportation brought heavy equipment to the school to talk about road building, types of roadway surfaces, the impacts of weather, and environmental concerns in highway management.
 
And the students took trips to events such as the USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo held on the National Mall last October and a STEM career fair. They also visited the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
 
Third-grader Yasmin says she enjoyed going to the Air and Space Museum; she liked seeing the planes. She says she's interested in an engineering career when she grows up because it's fun making stuff. And "when it doesn't turn out the way you want it to, you can try again and it's even more fun."
 
Yasmin is one of a number of students who have expressed interest in becoming engineers after their time in the STEM Plus club. Miles, a fourth-grader in Haskins' group, also wants to be an engineer, "because I enjoy it. It helps me understand my future."
 
Other students enjoy the club but don't come away with engineering career aspirations. They want to be a professional soccer player, or teacher. And that's okay too. The club's goal is not necessarily to make every student into an engineer or scientist.
 
According to Haskins, "looking at the world through a scientific prism allows you to have a more analytical view of what's happening in your life, in the world." She hopes that students will gain a can-do attitude that will help them break problems down into small segments to solve them.
 
In addition, the science teacher says the STEM Plus club helps students enjoy their learning. "That's my goal for them, to have a zest," she says. "Just be like monsters for learning and discovery."
 
According to Program Manager Adams, students in the after-school club have demonstrated increased interest and engagement in STEM. They have also started to understand the wide variety of careers related to each of the STEM areas and to think more critically as well as improve their analysis and process skills. For instance, when Adams visits classrooms, she hears students talk about what they've observed during an activity, make predictions about what will happen, and discuss what they'd change to create a different result.
 
After STEM Plus ends one afternoon, three boys who don't ride the bus stay late with Haskins to test the solar boats they've built out of small soda bottles in the school's pond.
 
"Turn, turn!" yells one boy to his boat. "Good boy."
 
"You guys are geniuses," says Haskins.
 
"Yeah, we're geniuses," says the fourth-grader.
 
"I know," says his friend.
 
The Cora Kelly STEM Plus club is funded through December 2011 and is pursuing grants, donations, matching funds, volunteers, and other options for continuing and expanding the program. To suggest ideas, contact Cora Kelly PTA Treasurer Ashley Chappell at ckpta@corakelly.org.
 
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