Future Engineers

During the week of March 16th, Lower School students will reveal their self-designed engineering projects as part of a division-wide Engineering Expo in RSPA Panther Hall. Students in Kindergarten through Fifth Grade have spent approximately six weeks in their science classes focusing on engineering, from brainstorming and planning their ideas, to sketching their designs, to building and putting their projects into action. Below is a sneak-peak at some of their work.

Younger students designed projects around books read during class, explains Lower School Science Teacher Kelly Lepkoski (Beginners-2nd Grade). For example, Kindergarteners made a back scratcher using everyday materials such as cardboard rolls, pipe cleaners, plastic utensils, rubber bands and rulers. The idea for a back scratcher came from a book called “Big Smelly Bear” – students needed to create a way to help the bear solve his problem of an itchy back. After reading “Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!” first-graders were challenged to build a garden fence that a (pop-up) bunny cannot hop over; they used string, pipe cleaners, index cards, tape, craft sticks, Play-Doh and more to engineer their fences. Second-graders read “The Three Little Pigs” and designed a house that can stand up to the big bad wolf (a blow dryer); their materials included straws, toothpicks, linguini, plastic cups, paper clips, marshmallows.

In the upper grades, third-graders built miniature houses out of cardboard and art duct tape and then designed and built simple circuits that open and close with a switch for the rooms in the houses. Fourth-graders started with a rolling car prototype and engineered ways for the cars to race while carrying balloons. Fifth-graders have been engaged in short-term engineering projects to gain experience using the Engineering Design Process and working cooperatively as a team. Their first challenge, Save the Marshmallow, was to build the highest free-standing tower that could hold a marshmallow using only 20 strands of spaghetti, tape and string. The second challenge, On Target, asked the teams to modify a paper cup to simulate a real NASA spacecraft mission that was designed to impact the moon’s surface in order to find ice crystals and water vapor in the plume of dust that resulted from the collision. Their simulated spacecraft had to travel down a zipline and release a marble onto a targeted “moon” surface. Their final project has been kept a secret for the big reveal at this week's Engineering Expo!

These projects and the Engineering unit incorporate some of the activities from Science Olympiad, previously offered as a Ranney afterschool activity, which has been folded into the Lower School science curriculum, allowing all students the opportunity to explore, experiment and evaluate with hands-on applications. The students work in teams or small groups which also provides a collaborative element to their work. “Not only do they have to design a concept to a challenge or problem, but they have to implement that design—they get to see their ideas in action,” says Lower School Science Teacher Judy Salisbury (3rd-5th grades).

Ranney’s Pre-Kindergartners have also spent time beginning to understand basic engineering concepts as part of their science classes. In addition to studying topics such as the Moon, Living and Nonliving Things, Sink and Float, and Insects and Spiders, they have learned science words and the process of scientific thinking. For example, the classes have discussed different types of motions and what a force is. They have also used Play-Doh to practice “push and pull” sequences while helping to build their fine motor skills as well.

“A huge part of science is creating a hypothesis and figuring out why the result came out as it did,” says Mrs. Lepkoski. “Pre-Kindergarteners begin that thought process of predicting and answering why, while building higher-level thinking skills as they move onto other grades.”

Parents are invited to visit the Lower School’s Engineering Expo with their child after school March 17-19. There will also be a Robotics competition for our Lower and Middle School robotics students on Wed March 18 at 4 p.m.

Learn more about our Early Childhood Education Program curriculum.