Things can get messy when Barbara Currey is teaching. “I’m not afraid to get dirty,” says the second- and third-grade science teacher at Cuyahoga Heights Elementary School.” Currey confesses that she allows her students to get messy, too. “They get to touch and feel and sometimes it really does get messy, but I want them to be excited about science. I don’t want them to be scared by big words. We talk about it, they hear about it, they read about it, and then they do it,” Currey noted.
One of the tools that Currey uses to instill this enthusiasm is Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a nationwide program that provides learning resources in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Cuyahoga Heights Schools has been a PLTW participant for many years. These resources are integrated into the curriculum as early as second grade and continue through high school.
“We were looking at ways to increase STEM offerings and this program incorporates engineering, computer science, biomedical, etc.,” said Matt Young, assistant superintendent, about the role PLTW plays in the curriculum. (Note: at the elementary level, PLTW refers to the program as Project LAUNCH The Way.) “PLTW has been around for several decades and it’s pretty well established in a lot of schools across the country. We feel that it gives our students a wide variety of STEM-based programming and complements the science program we already have in place.”
The district pays an annual membership fee to participate. “Because of our affiliation with the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, we receive a grant that allows us to purchase equipment to update and add to our activities in the program,” Young added. The membership has enabled three teachers, including Curry, to acquire PLTW certification to teach the curriculum at their respective elementary, middle, and high school levels.
For second graders, these resources are incorporated in a unit on learning how wind and water change the shape of the land. Curry brings in buckets of sand and divides the children into teams to create a scenario in which they build a landscape in a tray. The children assign duties. One builds a hill while another places houses. A third places bushes and a fourth takes charge of water, measuring it in milliliters, and using it to simulate a landslide.
“The unit helps young scientists explore the question of what forces change the earth,” said Currey. “They communicate with each other, learn to listen to one another and learn how to be open to new ideas. They work with material constraints just like a real engineer would. How they use the materials is up to them,” she said. “After they allow the water to flow, they see how the landscape was affected, and how a natural disaster can cause a fast change to the earth. They compare solutions to slow and prevent water from changing the shape of the land.”
In third grade, Currey incorporates another PLTW unit to extend the study of force and interaction. Students work in teams to build simple machines, such pulleys or levers, to solve proposed problems. They learn how force affects motion, how simple machines can make work easier, and the importance of clearly understanding both the problem and the design constraints before working toward a solution. “Students learn that there are multiple solutions to an engineering problem, and therefore they see the benefit of collaborating with one another to find a solution. They learn that it’s OK to make mistakes and that you can learn from failures,” noted Currey. “The goal is for the students to become hands-on problem solvers and learn to work with their fellow students,” she noted.
“It all comes back to giving them a foundation for science. And that foundation will give them enthusiasm for science and the skills that they need as they progress through the grade levels,” Currey concluded.
Those skills are further put to the test at the fourth and fifth grade when Technology teacher Gary Miller teaches a unit on Robotics, another PLTW program. Students learn to build a robot and code (program) their machine to take certain actions. PLTW courses at the middle and high school levels provide additional age-appropriate exposure to STEM concepts with a more defined focus on STEM careers.