Summer 2022 Workshop

On Wednesday, about 40 local elementary teachers and STEM division specialists attended the Ed+gineering Summer Workshop to explore strategies for integrating engineering into elementary classroom instruction. They learned about the importance of considering empathy in their design and implementation of engineering problems and solutions, and the need for diversity within the engineering profession. Through sessions led by project team members and a guest panel of local in-service teachers, participants learned how to minimize barriers to engineering integration in their classrooms, such as a lack of time and materials. To overcome these barriers, participants learned about engineering challenges they can facilitate with supplies they already have in their classrooms and brainstormed ways in which they can integrate engineering into other subject areas such as reading/writing, mathematics, and social studies. Division leaders also discussed barriers to engineering integration and shared successful strategies that have worked with their elementary schools and teachers. In the morning they built paper bridges, catapults, and cars, and designed a corral to contain their “Bristle Bot” robots. In the afternoon, they “jigsawed” their way through four engineering lessons where they learned about and then taught their peers how to build windmills, construct frog habitats, design mechanisms for pollination, and create a process to clean up an oil spill. Using class materials provided to them from the workshop, we know that the in-service teachers will do a phenomenal job teaching these lessons in the upcoming school year!