Upload
ngokhanh
View
221
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
STEM Ac(vi(es in a Spanish Immersion Classroom
By María Miranda and Verónica Luna Grady
Spanish Immersion at BLOCKS Preschool
• Teacher-‐student ra7o: 2 to 18 • Mul7age: 3 to 5 years old • Spanish dominant children can aDend 2 days • Theme-‐based learning • Follows MA Curriculum Standards
What do we teach?
• We teach Literacy, Math, Science and Social Studies through 6 content units:
-‐ 3 Science Units: Fall, Winter and Spring
-‐ 3 Social Studies Units: All about me, My family and Community helpers.
Strategies that promote student par(cipa(on
• Pictures and icons • Manipula7ves • Sentence strips • Poin7ng • Flexible grouping • Think aloud • Role playing • Exit 7cket
What is STEM?
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
• It is the integra7on of at least 2 STEM disciplines within a curricular ac7vity.
• It is a project based approach to learning.
• It provides the opportunity to use the Engineering Design Process.
The Engineering Design Process
• Ask: What is the problem? • Imagine: Brainstorm many solu7ons (focus on quan7ty) and choose one.
• Plan: Draw a diagram, make a list of materials. • Create: Follow the plan and test it out! • Improve: Modify your design to make it beDer and test it out!
STEM Ac(vi(es
We included two STEM ac7vi7es in our Community Helpers Unit: • The Tower Challenge
• The Firefighters Ramps Challenge
The Tower Challenge
• The children will pretend they are construc7on workers, and
• given a certain number of blocks, in groups of four, they will build the highest possible tower that stands for at least 10 seconds.
Teacher Observa(ons
• The children built horizontally, placing the blocks next to each other to make the floor of the tower.
• They placed blocks next to each other to build solid walls and ran out of blocks quickly.
• When they built the second floor, it collapsed. • Teacher support was needed to guide the teams.
What did they learn?
• It is not necessary to use blocks to build a whole floor.
• When they run out of long blocks, they could use two medium blocks and it will be the same length.
What did they learn?
• For the tower to be sturdy, they have to put blocks across when they start each floor.
Conclusion
• Through trial and error the children learned that the posi7on and size of the blocks has an impact on the stability of the tower.
Language Objec(ve
Students will be able to use a sentence structure to describe what happened: Construí un edificio _________ (alto/bajo) Mi edificio _____________ (se cayó/no se cayó)
The Firefighters Ramp Challenge
• The children will use four ramps with different surfaces (wood, felt, quilted fabric and mesh shelf liner) and launch four iden7cal fire trucks at the same 7me.
• They will observe which fire truck gets to the house on fire first. They will repeat the experiment four 7mes.
• They will tally the results in order to draw conclusions about what they saw.
Teacher Observa(ons
• For some groups, four ramps were too many to observe at the same 7me so they did the ac7vity with just three ramps.
What did they learn?
• The children learned that the truck on the wood ramp is always faster, followed by the one on the felt ramp, and the truck on the mesh shelf liner is always last.
Conclusion
• The children realized that the texture of the ramps determined the speed of the trucks.
Language Objec(ve
Students will be able to do the following according to their level of language proficiency: • Point to the fastest/slowest truck. • Fill in the blanks in the sentence: El camión más rápido/lento fue el de la rampa _____________ (lisa, afelpada, ondulada y gomosa) . • Say the full sentence.
MA Learning Standards
Math: • Measurement and Data: PK MD MA.1 and PK MD MA.2
• Geometry: PK G MA.1 Science: • Physical Science: PK-‐PS2-‐1 and PK-‐PS2-‐2 Social Studies: PK-‐K.4, PK-‐K.6 and PK-‐K.8 Literacy: SL MA 5, L MA 6
Where can you incorporate STEM ac(vi(es?
• These examples show how we integrated STEM into one of our Social Studies Units in our Spanish Immersion Classrooms.
• But STEM ac7vi7es can be incorporated into any subject and are a great way to promote language acquisi7on!
• Where could you integrate STEM ac7vi7es in your seing?