#SOL18 Day 8: STEAM Lab

On Wednesdays, the hour before lunch is my class’s scheduled time in the STEAM lab. This is a new addition to our school this year, so it took a few months to work out the kinks and get into a routine. At first, pretty much each student just want to work on his or own thing, having their hands on the materials 100% of the time. It wasn’t so much about collaboration, learning new skills, or having a plan as it was following the instructions from the kit. Students programmed Osmo using the tutorials, constructed K’Nex creations from the instructions, built skyscrapers and fences based on Keva plank photographs. We walked in, made things, cleaned up, and then left. I was okay with this at the beginning because we were all just learning about the materials and how they work.

But after several weeks of this, I knew it was time for a change. I needed the STEAM lab to be more of a lab and less of an extra indoor recess room. I gradually introduced changes and had students reflect on what they learned and make plans for the next STEAM lab time. It

Now we’re in our third phase of using the STEAM lab, and this phase feels the most meaningful. The changes this time? We have a theme for our sessions and we take time to share our work. For the past two weeks, the theme was winter. Students made sledding hills, snowpeople, the Olympic rings, scarves, and mugs of cocoa. There were also groups who programmed robots to follow a slalom course, who got robots to ice skate, and who made an electronic counter for speed skating laps. There are also a few creations on Scratch that are still in progress.Most of all, students are collaborating and interacting the whole time.

We just started our astronomy unit in science, the theme for the next couple of weeks is space. This week we had Saturn and a black hole built out of Solo cups. Several students made pom pom planets, and one student even got started on a solar system mobile. There were many space vehicles built out of a whole variety of materials. We have extra Osmos on loan this month, and many students used them to trace space pictures, turn tangram puzzles into a space-related story, and assembled pizzas for “Astro Pizza. Where pizzas are built as fast as a rocket.” (That one cracked me up!) A couple of groups programmed robots to go on space tours.

The best part for me was at the end. “Are we going to share?” “Are we going to have space as a theme next week too?” “I already know what I’m going to add to this next time.” We will probably need a phase four before the end of the year, and I’m looking forward to seeing where that will take us.