Latest STEAM Work at Paterson School 2!

This month at Paterson School 2, Grades 1 and 2 students are putting the “E” in STEAM, emphasizing basic engineering principles. WPU art professor in residence Simone Sandler has had students doing a variety of projects.

Students were given clear recycled tennis ball holders, and asked, “What can we do with these?”  They chose to build the tallest towers possible.  They realized that support was necessary, and, through trial and error, discovered that index cards worked best.

A second project involved creating robots from recycled items.  Students looked at what was discarded in the lunchroom garbage at the end of the day, and were asked, “What could we use these for?  How could we recycle these?”  Students saved the items and brought others from home.  They identified 3D geometric shapes, and using these with papier-mâché, glue and paint they created their robots.  Students had to problem-solve on how to make their robots stand.  They then wrote stories about their robots.

 

This STEAM project involved 3D math shapes and found objects. The question posed to the class was, "What would the ideal playground look like?  "What would students in the lower grades use and what would the upper grades want?" The students searched for objects in the room that they could use. No glue or scissors were allowed.  Students worked in groups, making critical decisions and problem solving how to build their perfect playgrounds. The students then wrote stories about their playgrounds.