By: Felicia Frazar, The Seguin Gazette | Read it >
Navarro Elementary first grade teacher Charlotte Trapp’s students excitedly hurried to plan and design a beanstalk sturdy enough for Jack to survive a wind storm.
Using a type of play currency, the students bartered for materials to craft their creations inside the Learning Undefeated Texas Mobile STEM Lab on Thursday. The goal was to get them excited about learning through a STEM-based project and give teachers more ideas on ways to use everyday classroom supplies to engage their students in unique lessons, said Ingra Williams, Learning Undefeated Texas Mobile STEM Lab education outreach coordinator.
“Our main goal is to try and support educators, and making sure the kids have the ability to have the experience,” she said.
The Mobile STEM Lab travels to various schools throughout the state bringing lessons in science, technology, engineering and math to students.
“The goal is for us to be able to have these programs to where we can use everyday items that teachers have in their classrooms and they can take back any curriculum that they’re working on,” Williams said. “Everything is cross curriculum and we’re using the same TEEKS they’re working on and we’re just trying to give them ways to support it.”
The week’s lesson for Navarro Elementary students revolved around “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Prior to their journey to the mobile lab in the Navarro Intermediate campus’ parking lot, the students read the classic fairy tale. Mobile lab educators prompted the students with questions about what they read and gave them parameters for a project — to build a beanstalk that could withstand a windstorm. The stalk had to reach a certain height and had to include a place for Jack to sit or stand.
The students, working in teams, quickly took to the assignment, each group coming up with a different design. Williams said she enjoys watching the kids work through the problem and come up with solutions.
“We’re trying to give them an idea of what engineering and design challenges look like and more opportunity to have STEM,” she said. “It is really awesome. A lot of the kids don’t have the resources to do these types of hands-on activities in the classroom. Teachers have so much on their plate already, so planning these types of things can be difficult.”
In the carefully crafted lessons, the students have the opportunity to build on various skills, Williams said.
“These are skills the children need for everything — collaboration, critical thinking skills, math, reading — we’re touching all of these elements of STEM and they’re able to apply that to different subjects,” she said. “They’re learning to work in groups. They need that social, emotional skill. Having these hands-on opportunities, being able to do this is really important.”
Currently, the Mobile STEM Lab is able to visit 30 campuses a year. However, due to a sizeble grant and partnership through the Texas Education Agency, Learning Undefeated is able to expand its fleet and add more trailers with the capability to reach more students, Williams said.
“We’re going to be able to go from supporting 30 schools a year to 270 schools a year,” she said. “Right now, we have open applications and we’re going to try and make sure we’re getting the word out to have as many people apply as possible. We want to make sure we service everybody. We’re able to bring them this experience to their parking lot. They’re essentially able to go on a field trip without leaving the campus and there is no fee, everything is free.”
