Kindergarteners busy with STEM projects
"We have had a busy start to our year," said Mrs. Patty Wegner, kindergarten teacher who has 14 students in her class this year.
Mrs. Nottlemann came to our room for science class and presented STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) lessons. We listened to the story, "Jack and the Beanstalk" and then built beanstalks out of pipe cleaners."
Their beanstalk had to have a foundation and be able to support a plastic egg at the top of the stalk. The next lesson was built on the story, "The Three Little Pigs." Students were given styrofoam blocks (bricks), popsicle sticks (sticks) and toothpicks (straw). Out of these materials, the students had to construct a house that would stand up to the Big Bad Wolf (a puppet on a leaf blower). Working together with a partner and using trial and error, the students were able to complete both projects successfully.
The kindergarteners learned that being a scientist involves trying one idea, and if that doesn't work, try another. Thomas Edison tried 1,000 times before he invented the working light bulb. The students thought that was a "bunch of times."