T h e C h i l d r e n ’ s E n g i n e e r i n g J o u r n a l A Journal of the Virginia Children’s Engineering Council

Volume 10 – Fall 2012

Inside This Edition: President’s Message Page 1

Kindergarten Civil Engineers Page 2

Design Brief to Try Page 3

Technology 101 Page 5

Using Design Challenges to Teach SOLs Page 7

Award Winners Page 10 Children’s Engineering Convention Page 11

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Children’s Engineering – A Journey Leadership Council Message

By Elizabeth Kirk, President-Elect VCEC

The Seventeenth Annual Virginia Children’s Engineering Convention is quickly approaching, and as we look forward to our annual gathering, it is hard to believe the exciting growth that has occurred in the Children’s Engineering journey. Seventeen years ago, the idea of Children’s Engineering began to gain momentum, and a convention to provide professional development for teachers was born. Less than 100 participants attended that year, compared with last year’s convention that boasted over 350 participants from across the country. Teachers, schools, and entire school systems are embracing the strategy of Children’s Engineering and using it to enhance student achievement. All along, the core beliefs of Children’s Engineering have remained constant. Children’s Engineering is the T and E in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. It provides students with technologically-based problem solving that enriches curriculum across all instructional areas in addition to helping them meet state and national standards. Students’ satisfy their academic needs while stretching their critical thinking skills to new levels. Self-confident learners are applying the knowledge they have gained in classrooms that are models of twenty-first century learning. This year’s convention has some new features to help teachers gain a better understanding of Children’s Engineering, with hands-on workshops that provide immediately accessible classroom-ready concepts. The convention will begin earlier on Thursday, with break-out sessions beginning in the afternoon. Teachers new to Children’s Engineering can learn the basics and begin immediate use of this strategy in their classrooms. Experienced teachers will find new, exciting ways to enhance their students’ learning and their own instructional creativity. Following Thursday’s guest speaker, Dr. James Hines, Former Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and sit-down dinner, teachers and exhibitors will show new ways to use products to heighten instruction. Friday morning will begin with breakfast and time to share ideas with other teachers. After a morning filled with more break-out sessions geared to increasing student achievement through Children’s Engineering, another engaging speaker, Celeste Baine, Norm Augustine Award winner, will share more with participants about technology in contemporary education during the annual luncheon. Following the luncheon, focused sessions will be provided that offer important information on ways to meet state and national standards through the use of Children’s Engineering. Please join us for the Seventeenth Annual Virginia Children’s Engineering Convention February 28 – March 1, 2013 to discover innovative ways to create fun in the classroom while taking your students’ achievement to new highs. Come along for a Children’s Engineering journey of your own.

Kindergarten Civil Engineers by Teresa Deal, Kindergarten Teacher, Cooper Elementary, Hampton, VA

In Cooper’s technology lab, students get to do engineering projects and put what they are learning to the test. During kindergarten’s lessons on communities the children at Cooper became civil engineers as they designed communities. Employing multimedia, hands-on experiences and team work the kindergarteners learned about who and what make up a community. They watched a slide show and video clips about what kinds of places and people we find in our communities. Places to live, shop, get medical attention, places to learn, work and play are all important parts of our communities. Using a simple rubric and design challenge sheet, the students gathered in groups of three to four students to build a community that included places for each activity: to live, work, play, learn, shop, and get help. They also build roads to navigate the community. Manual dexterity, creativity and problem solving skills were employed by the students as

they decorated the buildings and figured out how to attach them to their piece of poster board. They also applied labels to the locations represented. They learned how to reuse items that might otherwise have been thrown away such as empty tissue boxes and food boxes, yogurt containers, toilet tissue rolls and scraps of paper. When they were through making these creations, they presented them to teachers and the class to explain which buildings, occupations and features were represented in their

design. This gave them an opportunity to demonstrate their learning verbally as well as manually. After completing the three-dimensional models, each child used the computer to make a one-dimensional community like the one they had constructed. This reinforced the lesson and gave students the opportunity to transfer their learning from concrete objects into symbolic representations on the screen, which were then printed. Students were very engaged during the entire process and each team member tried to contribute as much as possible to the design. They were excited about showing what they had learned. Working in groups is not always easy for kindergarteners, but the excitement of the project allowed them to really demonstrate their abilities and their learning. This engineering project is always a favorite with the students and with the teachers.

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Design Brief to Try

Building a Neighborhood Primary Design Brief

By Joan Harper-Neely

You live in a place that has all of the things you need. There are places to live, work, play, eat, shop, and learn. Practice building a neighborhood at PBS Kids.org.

Design Challenge: Plan and make a neighborhood. In your neighborhood add a place to: • live • work • play • learn • get help • shop Make a map of the neighborhood using symbols to represent all of the different places in your neighborhood.

Materials: • Small boxes • cardboard • Pictures of buildings • Paper • Glue • Crayons

Tell what you have decided to put in your neighborhood. Use words like near, far, above below, left, right, behind, in front, beside, or under. Evaluate- How well did you do? Your neighborhood has a place where people: YES NO Live Work Learn Shop Have fun Get help You used symbols to represent the different place in your neighborhood on your map.

Social Studies SOLs K.3 Positional Words K. 5a Map awareness 1.5 The student will construct a simple map of a familiar area, using basic map symbols in the map legend. 1.6 The student will describe how location, climate, and physical surroundings affect the way people live, including their food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and recreation.

Tools: • Scissors • Ruler • Hot Glue Gun • Hole Punch

Design Brief to Try

MOVING GREETING CARDS Design Brief by Joan Harper-Neely, Hampton City Schools

Background: “The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year, and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls.” (http://www.greetingcard.org) Today we send cards for all occasions.

Get Well Sympathy Birthday Baby Shower Marriage Thank You Anniversary Holidays

Design Challenge: You will use your paper engineering skills to design and make a card for a specific occasion. These cards will be stored in the office and used by the administration team to send out to someone who may need one. Criteria: Your card must: have the appropriate greeting on the cover. have a picture or graphic design on the cover. have at least two sentences inside that explains the greeting on the cover. include a pop-up. include a lever. be neatly constructed. be edited for spelling and grammar.

Materials:

cardstock paper fasteners tag board paper clips file folder tape construction paper glue craft sticks

index cards

Tools:ruler straight edge push-pin paper drill crop-o-dile hole puncher

Writing SOLs 2.12 The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. 3.11 The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. 4.8The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. 5.8The student will write for a variety of purposes: to describe, to inform, to entertain, and to explain. 5.9The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure.

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Technology 101

As children’s engineering becomes more popular there are more websites that have design briefs to share. Use the design brief checklist to evaluate them and make enhancements to create the best challenge for your students. Children’s Engineering Educators, LLC created the checklist below for teachers to use in writing their own design briefs.

1. Background Statement Needs Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

• Does it set the context for the activity? • Is it age appropriate in language, length, and complexity? • Does it reference prior learning and/or research that the students did that will facilitate designing a solution to a problem?

• Is it detailed enough that an adult will understand the purpose for the design brief?

2. Challenge Statement Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

• Does the challenge support your curriculum? • Does it begin with “Design and (build/make/create) …” • Is it age appropriate in language, length, and complexity? 3. Challenge Criteria Criteria are part of the challenge. They set the limitations for the design. They are not directions.

Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

• Are the limitations age appropriate? • Do the limitations encourage critical thinking? • Is the application of mathematic knowledge/skills integrated into the criteria? If not, should the skill area be addressed?

• Is the application of science knowledge/skills integrated into the criteria? If not, should the skill area be addressed?

• Is the application of social studies knowledge/skills integrated into the criteria? If not, should the skill area be addressed?

Writing Design Briefs: A Teacher’s Self-Check List The rubric below is designed for teachers to self-check design briefs ensuring appropriate rigor and relevance for their students. Children’s Engineering: A Handbook for Elementary Educators provides a detailed introduction to writing design briefs for elementary students.

Rubric continued on next page.

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Technology 101

4. Materials Materials help set the limitations for the design. The list of materials should include materials that might work.

Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

Does the materials list: • Encourage a variety of design solutions?

• Vary from design brief to design brief? • Include a variety of choices for joining items? • Limit amount of specific materials available? (i.e. tape) • Include materials that force students to make decisions? • Exclude items that are for decorative purposes only? For more about materials see Children’s Engineering: A Handbook for Elementary Educators.

6. Editing Remember to take a few minutes and edit your work.

Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

Is the: • Reading level appropriate?

• Spelling correct? • Punctuation correct? • Grammar correct? • Format easy to follow with limited visual distractions?

5. Tools Tools can be used in the construction of the designed product. They are used to manipulate materials. They cannot become part of the product

Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

• Are the tools listed age appropriate? • Have students been given instruction on the proper use of each listed tool? • Have safety measures for using tools been put in place? • Are tools used for marking (pencils/markers/crayons) listed? For more about materials see Children’s Engineering: A Handbook for Elementary Educators.

7. Footer Does the footer include:

Needs Reworking

Some Refining Needed

Ready

Is the: • Reading level appropriate?

• The author’s name? • The author’s school or school division? • The date the design brief was written? • Targeted learning standards? • Supporting learning standards?

©2010 Children’s Engineering Educators, LLC, Permission Granted to Duplicate

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Using Engineering Design Challenges to Teach the SOLs

Two teachers share how they used design challenges to provide an opportunity for their students to apply what they were taught in class. Bryce Sweet and Karen Stadler understand that if they want their classes to retain the information then they have to create meaningful and relevant experiences.

Room Makeover - Math and Engineering By Bryce Sweet, Second Grade Teacher, Cooper Elementary, Hampton, VA

This design challenge was constructed to teach the practical use and application of the math concepts in measurement. Students had to define and figure out the area and perimeter of a room to determine if the furniture would fit. The second graders were given the design challenge and identified the problem they needed to solve. First they met as a group (4 in a group was the most effective for this activity) and decided how they would redesign their bedrooms if given the opportunity.

They first had to construct the bedroom itself. This they did by learning how to accurately measure and cut a piece of poster board from the directions provided by the teacher. They then

folded and tape the paper to construct a three-sided model of the room.

The next step was to carefully cut and paste graph paper on the floor of their room. Counting the squares on the graph paper provided the students with a method to find the area and perimeter of their model room. All of this information was recorded and used in the next step.

In this part of the room design, the group built 3-dimensional furniture to fit the room. These were flat

foldable figures called ”nets” in mathematics. Working together they combined the geometric solids together to make the furniture they wanted to place in their space. Bunk beds were constructed using rectangular prisms and straws. The students constructed and labeled all the furniture they had previously put in their blueprint plan for the room makeover.

The final step was the presentation by each group to show their work and tell about any special features they included in their new rooms.

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Using Engineering Design Challenges to Teach the SOLs (Continued from page 7)

Pneumatics By Karen Stadler, Third Grade Teacher, Cooper Elementary School, Hampton, VA Teachers at Cooper Elementary strive to connect technology and engineering daily within our instruction. We have found a way to make that connection while studying science standards of learning related to living systems (SOL’s 3.4 and 3.6). Over a couple of weeks I worked with our librarian, Mrs. Nancy Anderson, Gaye Reilly the teacher in residence at National Institute of Aeronautics, and our technology and children’s engineering teacher, Mrs. Joan Harper- Neely, to help our third grade students make that connection. They were required to research, produce a PowerPoint presentation and to construct an animal that moves with the use of a pneumatic system. The final product showed that students had a better understanding of the physical

adaptations of animals and their habitats along with an increased knowledge about pneumatics and how they work. Students increased their ability to create a PowerPoint presentation I began introducing the animal unit with a lesson to explain and discuss animal adaptations. We discussed about the different beaks of a bird and how the different shapes help them to eat different types of food. We also looked at an elephant and discussed how an elephant uses its different body parts to help it adapt to its environment and survive. I explained to

the students that I wanted them to produce a PowerPoint presentation about an animal. The presentation would include 4 topics: animal description and adaptations, habitat, diet, and behavioral adaptations. In keeping with teaching good research practices, students were required to include a bibliography.

We began the research in the library. Our librarian had set aside books about animals so that the students could choose a book about an animal that they wanted to learn more about. Once each student had chosen a book, we returned to the classroom to begin our research. I gave them a chart that had columns with the 4 topics as heading. Students were asked to complete using their books. I also made sure that they recorded the title and author for the bibliography. Next, students continued their researched using the Internet to complete the chart. They were instructed to be sure to record the name of the internet site where they found information to give credit to the source.

During Tech Lab with Mrs. Harper-Neely, student engineers got to take their knowledge of animal adaptations to a 3-D form. Mrs. Harper-Neely prepared a lesson on pneumatics. The students were instructed to think and discuss the how air can be trapped and use as a force to cause objects to move. Using plastic syringes and tubing, the third graders assumed the role as mechanical engineers to design an animal that had one moving part. The engineering problem solving loop was cycled through several times by teams as they decided:

• the best materials to use to represent their animal; • which part of their animal to give movement to; • how to put the materials together so that their animal could stand on its own; • where and how to attach the pneumatic system to their animal; • problem solve when their system had too much or too little air.

Students presented their projects by identifying and demonstrating the adaptations the animal has to survive in specific habitats.

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Award Winners 2012

Elementary School Program of the Year

Crestview Elementary School, Henrico County

Elementary School Technology Teacher of the Year

Elizabeth “Markley” Kautz-Scanavy, Henrico County

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Sponsored by VTEEA in conjunction with the ITEEA and the NASSP, the Program Excellence Award is one of the highest honors given to Technology and Engineering Education program at the elementary level. It is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession and children. The Program Excellence Award provides public recognition at local, regional, state and international levels.

Excerpt from VTEEA Application

The Teacher Excellence Award is one of the highest honors given to Technology and Engineering Education classroom teachers and is presented in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the profession and their students. The Teacher Excellence Award provides public recognition at the local, regional, state and international levels. On the state level, a VTEEA special recognition and awards dinner is provided during the VTEEA Annual Summer Conference. During the ITEEA annual conference, the honoree is formally presented an internationally engraved plaque and other awards.

Excerpt from VTEEA Application

Children’s Engineering Teacher Training: K-5 Strategies for Implementing the T & E in STEM By Linda Harpine, Adjunct Instructor, James Madison University Problem solving, critical thinking, designing, constructing, and collaborating highlighted the week spent by twenty-six Virginia educators as they explored Children’s Engineering at the Virginia Technology and Engineering Education Association’s summer conference in Frederick County, Virginia. Sponsored by the Virginia Children’s Engineering Council and the VTEEA, the class offered three hours of graduate credit through James Madison University or 40 teacher recertification points through the Virginia Department of Education. Taking part in the class were public and private school educators, including principals and K-5 grade level teachers, along with teachers of English language learners, special needs students, and middle and high school technology education students. Participants learned how to use and integrate design, engineering, and technology instructional resources into the existing curriculum in order to enhance children’s attainment of the Virginia Standards of Learning in science, mathematics, social studies/history and language arts, as well as within the private school curriculum. Challenges included designing and creating structures, rolling vehicles, bridges, pneumatic devices, electrical powered alarm systems, and pop-up cards with movable parts and lever operated mechanisms. Participants learned how to create and use design briefs and student portfolios to guide students through their hands-on, real world projects. They followed the design process, which incorporates understanding the problem, brainstorming, creating, testing, evaluating, and redesigning. Class members reflected daily on their understanding of Children’s Engineering. Katherine Mangum, first grade teacher at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond noted that when building a rolling vehicle she had an “AH HA” moment. She realized that she is “forgetting to flip over wagons and wheelbarrows for the girls to examine. They are hanging on closet doors and breaking hinges, and I am not making them take the hinges apart and examine them ... Maybe we could try to fix them first! I’m overlooking opportunities for technology and engineering that are right at my fingertips.” A November class will be held to share the implementation of children’s engineering activities in over twenty Virginia classrooms and the design activities created by the group will be made available for public use on the Virginia Children’s Engineering Council website. A Children’s Engineering class is being planned for the 2013 VTEEA’s summer conference in Hampton, Virginia.

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Convention News & Highlights

Children’s Engineering Convention Thursday & Friday, February 28 – March 1, 2013

Holiday Inn Koger Center 1021 Koger Center Boulevard Richmond, Virginia 23235-4756 Tel: (804) 379-3800

Celebrating 17 Years of Engineering Design and Technology In-Service Programs that Develop Technological Literacy at Grades K-5 Don’t Miss the Chance to

• Reinforce the Virginia Standards of Learning through hands-on designing, building, and problem solving activities.

• Explore strategies for integrating Children’s Engineering into the existing curriculum. • Attend workshops conducted by experienced K-5 classroom teachers. • Network with teachers who share your interest in the need for every child to study and use technology. • Visit educational exhibits and examine available materials from technology vendors.

Learn How Children’s Engineering Promotes

• Virginia Standards of Learning mastery • National Standards • Critical and creative thinking • Problem solving • Hands-on learning • Decision-making • Cooperative learning skills • Differentiated instruction • Motivated and self-confident learners • Respect for the individual learning styles of students, including the needs of gifted and special needs

students, with the same lessons Full Conference Registration Includes Dinner on Thursday evening Breakfast, luncheon, and 2 breaks on Friday Recertification points for Virginia teachers Keynote Speakers Dr.James Hines, Past President, System Dynamics Society Celeste Bain, Director of the Engineering Education Service Center Administrators & Instructional Leaders Special Friday sessions addressing implementation of Children’s Engineering into the elementary curriculum. Registration Fee: $135 Registration Postmark Deadline January 25, 2013 (non-refundable after February 8, 2013) Register Early! For More Information Contact Joyce Anderson, Registration Chair (804) 794-0981, lbjanders@verizon.net

Dr. Lynn Basham, VDOE Representative (804) 786-4210, lynn.basham@doe.virginia.gov Sponsored by: Virginia Children’s Engineering Council (VCEC), Virginia Technology and Engineering Education Association (VTEEA), Technology Education Service, Virginia Department of Education

Front Cover Kindergarten students at Cooper Elementary Magnet School for Technology in Hampton, Virginia explored force and motion. Using recycled materials of juice cartons, laundry detergent containers, and rubber bands, these students worked together to create a paddleboat. The kindergartners learned that there are many ways to move boats using different forces such as wind, oars, motors, and paddles. The rubber band motor helped their paddles push the water causing their boat to move forward and backward. The students tested their paddleboats during a trip to Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton. The day before the trip one budding engineer asked, “How will we get the boat back out of the water?” His teammate had an idea, “We can tie a string to it and pull it in.”

Published by the Virginia Children’s Engineering Council Editor-in-Chief: Joan Harper-Neely Field Editor: Charlotte Holter If you would like to submit to the upcoming Winter 2013 edition, please send articles to JLHNEELY@aol.com and design briefs to cholter@rockingham.k12.va.us by December 5. Published articles may earn up to 45 re- certification points.