Engineering Institute at Drew Central
May 23rd, 2013 by Drew Central Schools-
- Hunter Goad, Alex Owens
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- Timber Simpson, Sandra Mondragon, Ty’Kayla Lucas In the back Brandie Collier teacher
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- Krista Donley, Eva Arrington teacher, Aspen White
Fourth graders at Drew Central Elementary worked on their engineering skills by attending DC Engineering Institute during their second semester as part of a grant written by teacher Eva Arrington funded by Toyota & Ryburn Automotive.
According to the new Common Core State Standards, students in 4th grade should be reading 50% literacy and 50% informational text with the percentages increasing to 70% informational text by 12th grade. One focus of the grant was to highlight a type of informational text- technical text. In one of many lessons, students interpreted information presented visually in diagrams and explained how the information contributed to an understanding of the text in which it appeared.
Students worked with partners to construct a mystery model which turned out to be various Bionicles. Next, students used their Bionicle for observing, measuring, journal writing, and data collecting. The question was posed “Which Bionicle is your favorite?” This question was the cayalyst for creating different types of graphs.
Another focus was to encourage female students to consider a career in science. Although women make up half of the national workforce, they only hold 20% of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math according to the United States Department of Labor. Students participated in read alouds of books titled Girls Think of Everything and Ingenious Inventions by Women.
Students researched women that have had an important role in science and wrote an The Arkansas Department of Education will make a decision in the fall regarding adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. If adopted , implementation would follow in the fall of 2014. Arkansas was a lead state in developing the standards. For the first time in the history of science standards the Next Generation Science Standards includes engineering practices in the K-12 standards.
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