STEM class is part of the special areas rotation at Rocky River Elementary School.  All students Kindergarten through 5th grade participate in STEM class once a week.  The focus for the class is to help students grow into adaptive, resilient, problem-slovers that embrace failure as part of the process of being successful, not the opposite of it.  Students learn how to collaborate and communicate with one another as they synergize in their learning teams to solve authentic, complex problems. Take a look below at some of the problems that students were asked to solve this year.

5th Grade STEM Class

5th grade students spent the year putting their problem solving abilities to the test.  They built mars landers to protect an egg from a 30 foot drop, used microscopes to research unicellular and mutucellular organisms to see if a river was safe to swim in, learned about variables as they built straw rockets, built their own food truck business, budgeted for a backyard renovation, and sharpened their coding skills while building their own robots.

4th Grade STEM Class

The 4th grade stem students spent the year solving a plethora of different problems.  They coded the Dash robots to use their grippers to assist handicapped people around their house, constructed popsicle bridges to have the greatest structural efficiency, learned about and designed their own working circuits, coded and built their own working robots, created engineering solutions for homeowners, and used technology to design advertisements for their businesses.

3rd Grade STEM Class

Third grade students focused on their collaboration skills this year as they worked through some complex problems.  They experimented with friction and gravity as they built complex wooden track systems using KEVA planks, Learned block coding as they designed their own dash robots to complete tasks around the house, designed and engineered new versions of wheel chairs that could more easily travel on sand, dirt, and rocks. They unleashed their imagination while building Rube Goldberg Machines, and built their own wind-powered boats out of recycled materials and then raced them.  

2nd Grade STEM Class

2nd graders focused on their innovation as they solved a number of authentic problems.  They learned about friction and gravity as they built a multitude of structures, they built chairs, swings and more for their stuffed animals as they learned about how shapes can strengthen a structure.  They used a wind tunnel to test new parachute designs, and upgraded their knowledge of coding as they collaborated together to complete challenges while coding the new Botleys.  

1st Grade STEM Class

The first grade students spent the year growing as problem solvers.  They focused on completing more complex problem solving and blossomed into talented critical thinkers. They explored gravity as they designed wooden ramp systems and they explored magnetism and designed their own maglev trains. They built on their understanding of coding from last year by creating more complex chains of code for their bee bots, and they strengthened their debugging skills using the marble run systems.  Finally, they designed and built their own lego trucks that carried an iron block down a ramp as far as they could make it go.  

Kindergarten STEM Class

Kindergarten students spent the year being introduced to many of the different types of materials that we have in class.  They learned about failure and how it is okay to fail.  They learned how to persevere and not give up while trying to solve problems.  Collaboration and social skills also play a large role in kindergarten STEM.  They had some amazing creations as they worked on their spatial reasoning and fine motor skills.