When I started the STEAM program at Wattsburg Elementary Center, I was searching for ideas and options.
Bricks for Kids and Penn State Behrend Youth Education Outreach both offered to bring programs into STEAM for me. One was a per student fee and one was a donation. PTO and the principals generously offered the needed funds!
Year 1, the outreach came into STEAM for the day. They saw 5 grade levels in 1 day and had to return for 5 school days. For the first year, this worked enough.
Pros:
New experiences for everyone (students, staff, outreach)
Educational experiences
Cons:
Seeing five grade levels in one day
Cost
Planning (snow days, 2 hour delays, etc...)
Time involved for outreach personnel
I had to figure out how to do it different in year 2. The idea came to do 1 grade level per school day AND create a modified schedule so that everyone got 1 hour of STEM outreach. I picked and chose carefully based on my experiences in year 1. Plus, I found that Asbury Woods had a grant funded program to come and do more activities with the students!
Year 2 was a huge improvement, but the location was still needing modification. The other challenge was coordinating dates, creating schedules, making contacts, securing funding, etc... The behind scenes work was stressful.
The plan created was as follows:
Grade K - Asbury Woods - Nature Composters
Grade 1 - Penn State Behrend Youth Outreach - 21 Elephants bridge engineering
Grade 2 - Bricks for Kids - Forces and Motion
Grade 3 - Bricks for Kids
Grade 4 - Penn State Behrend Youth Outreach - Candy Bag Engineering
THIS IS YEAR 3 and it was much smoother than year 2. It was so much easier with the contacts, schedules, and more ready to go! My major change was moving all outreach to our discovery/gifted room on days that it was not being utilized! It is nice to set up in one space, but the sound does travel to nearby classrooms.
In addition, we added a science activity with Asbury Woods to the fourth grade opportunities. The topic was on food chains and plastic pollution. As of Friday March 15, every student has had an hour of STEM outreach except Kindergarten. Their STEM OUTREACH date is Friday March 29th!
The students love the opportunity to have a mini-field trip come to the school. It exposes students to new opportunities.
Where can I get more information?
Asbury Woods website -
Asbury Woods
Penn State Behrend Youth Education Outreach -
Penn State
Bricks 4 Kidz-
Bricks 4 Kidz
Below are some pictures from the first 5 out of 6 STEM outreach days:
Asbury Woods - Grade 4
Penn State Behrend - Grade 4
Bricks for Kids - grade 3
Bricks for Kids - grade 2
Penn State Behrend - grade 1
