To end a great school year, teachers were invited to come for a full day of professional development in Engineering With Legos. We encouraged those who had come for the first day to return since the activities would be all new. We had about 20 teachers present including the 3 who returned from our day 1 PD. We started off the day with a short share time of using the kits in classrooms and how engaging these STEM lessons can be for students. Then we dived into the first activity. We were honored to have Jennifer Coull a VAPA consultant from Fresno County. She helped with our first activity called Programmable Piano.
Jennifer helped lay the foundation with interactive lessons that taught beat and rhythm.
Teachers created a rhythm maker and developed their own notation. Jennifer helped relate their notation to standard music notation and to mathematics.
The second activity was creating slot cars. Each participant created one of two different cars and investigated the difference of each build and how it affected the car's performance.
Finally, participants created their own test tracks and were able to alter their cars to improve overall performance. Teachers really seemed to take pride in their work through this activity.
We also discussed how students could not only use linear measurement in this activity, but that in the creating of test tracks students could use different types of angles ( acute, obtuse, right). The origami buildings were also a great way to integrate mathematics.
The day ended with some investigation in stable structures and culminated with a Big Boom Competition.
Participants worked in their groups to create the largest and most efficient boom given certain parameters.
The day was both fun and intriguing. Every activity incorporated the eight Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice.
The change that the Common Core Standards will bring does not have to be scarey for teachers, it can be a welcoming shift to true learning by doing. Many thanks to the teachers who came for Day 2. We hope to offer Day 1 again in the Fall! Have a great summer and thank you for all you do for the students of Fresno County!
