Susan Belgrad, ProfessorCalifornia State University

Northridgeand

Ronnie Silverstone, Retired LAUSD Kindergarten

Engineers in the Block Corner

What Exactly Is Engineering?

Let’s Be EngineersCooperative Block Play

Each cooperative learning group will be asked to design a different structure for an “Ideal Community” (vision of a 5-year old)

A bridge (over river, streets, canals ,etc)

Streets and Roads in a town or city A City Skyscraper A Building with a Keystone (find someone who knows what this is).

Engineers in the Block Corner

Engineers in the Block Corner Block play enables boys and girls to acquire the fundamental skills of the engineer—

applied math, science and communication. Set loose in the well-equipped block corner kindergarten children engage in “multi-sensory experiences through environmental encounters.” Block play promotes a wide variety of sensorimotor processes in which children imagine, visualize, explore, prediction-test and strive to accomplish what they want to do with the materials. Block play is a key learning process that can assure the foundations for success in all academic subjects but especially math, engineering and science. Through engagement in a play-based preschool and kindergarten setting, children are naturally acquiring the cognitive and neural foundations for continuing success as students in all subjects including the 21st century STEM disciplines now advanced for elementary, secondary and post-secondary education. For example, researchers have identified how block play promotes the foundations for academic success in each discipline in the following ways:

Science

Technology

Engineering Math

Experimental design Observations and predictions Hypothesis and evidence Data analysis and acquisition Measurement Error analysis Amplitude and frequency Light and reflectivity Color and perception Spatial graph model Speed, distance and power

Purposes of technology Technology relationships Systems (interconnectivity) Design tradeoffs Troubleshooting Sensors Performance Boundaries Mechanical elements Controls Speed, distance and power

Problem Solving Decision Making Critical Thinking Job Task Planning and Organizing Significant Use of Memory Finding Information

Diameter - Circumference Angles Graphs and tables Linear relationships Scaling and models Ratios and proportions Unit conversions Averages Boolean logic Spatial reasoning Patterns

Additionally, when teachers engage children in conversation with peers and adults, block play promotes important communication and social skills that are needed in the 21st century global workplace: Brainstorming solutions; Reasoning with evidence; Explanatory composition; and Documenting processes. In recent years, Mitch Resnick of MIT has sought to recreate and extend the valuable foundations of kindergarten block play and its associated child development curricula to reinvigorate education throughout P-12 schooling.

Our goals for this presentation . . .Block play enables boys and girls to acquire the

21st century skills of the mathematician, scientist and engineer.

It is applied math, science and communication. Set loose in the well-equipped block corner,

kindergarten children engage in “multi-sensory experiences through environmental encounters” in which they imagine, visualize, explore, predict, test and strive to accomplish what they want to do.

Block play is a key learning process that can assure the foundations for success in all academic subjects but especially math and science.

What skills were we engaged in during our block building?

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.

What skills do you see were engaged in this capture of children’s block building?

Pair-Share in Your TeamsWhat mathematics knowledge

did you have to use to design and create your structures?

What science knowledge did you need to have and apply in designing in your structure?

What conversations (communication skills) were needed?

Did you have any problems with ideas, design, creating?

How did you solve them?

What children look like when they are engineering in the block corner

Let’s Play!Build with a Barrier Use communication skills

Visualize each directionPlace your blocks to create the structureCompare with your partners

Follow upWhat communication skills did you need

to successfully create your structures?What science (physics) knowledge did you

need to have and apply in designing in your structure?

What clarifications were needed?Did you have problems? How did you solve them?Could you use these questions when

children are engaged in block play?

Engineering IS Considered an Important 21st Century Skill

Let’s look at how the Common Core State Standards Support the Promotion of Block Play in your Kindergarten or Transitional Kindergarten….

The Common Core State StandardsGrade K OverviewCounting and CardinalityOperations and Algebraic ThinkingUnderstand addition as putting together

and adding toUnderstand subtraction as taking apart

and taking from.Number and Operations in Base Ten

The Common Core State StandardsGrade K OverviewMeasurement and DataDescribe and compare measurable attributes.Classify objects and count the number of

objects in categories.

GeometryIdentify and describe shapes.Analyze, compare, create, and compose

shapes.

The Common Core State StandardsIn Kindergarten, more instructional time

should focus on these critical areas: 1.Representing, relating, and operating

on whole numbers, initially with sets of objects; (more learning time should be devoted to number than to other topics).

2.Describing shapes and space. 3.Describing their physical world using

geometric ideas (e.g., shape, orientation, spatial relations) and vocabulary.

The Common Core State Standards

In Kindergarten, more instructional time should focus on these critical areas:

4. Identifying the name, and describing basic two-dimensional shapes, such as squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, and hexagons, presented in a variety of ways (e.g., with different sizes and orientations), as well as three-dimensional shapes such as cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres.

5. Using basic shapes and spatial reasoning to model objects in their environment and to construct more complex shapes.

“We believe that it is critically important for all children, from all backgrounds, to grow up knowing how to design, create, and express themselves.” We want to extend a vision of the developmentally appropriate kindergarten style of learning, returning to U.S. institutions of learning “so that learners of all ages continue to learn through a process of designing, creating, experimenting, and exploring.” Mitch Resnick, MIT (Lifelong Kindergarten)

Concluding Thoughts

Contacts:Susan Belgrad susan.belgrad@csun.eduRonnie Silverstone slvrstn@verizon.net