STEM and PBL at HES
Save the Date for January 16, 2020 (with a snow date of January 23, 2020)!
Please join us for our first Student STEM Showcase at Hendersonville Elementary School entitled “Roadtrippin.” We would be honored to have you take a spin around our school, as our students take you on a tour with their Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) problem-solving based projects. You will check in for the road trip at the front of the school and then gather in the gymnasium for our start your engines program. Student leaders will share the importance of STEM education and how it is a part of HES. Each guest will then join a tour group and your student “driver” will take you on a road trip through the grade levels. In order to access the full road trip experience, be sure to pack your cell phone! Each tour will include a scheduled pit stop in our gymnasium for student-led demonstrations of some amazing STEM tools such as Ozobots, drones, Sphero, coding, robotics, and more!
Please let us know if you would like to join us for this adventure by completing our Google Form.
Here are some examples of STEM and PBL around our school.
- Watch our 3rd graders on WLOS Never Stop Learning as the talk about their solar system project.
HES’ First Hour of Code
by Isaac Wells, former Instructional Coach for HES
Hendersonville Elementary is focused on STEAM education which incorporates Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics into daily lessons and student work. Over the last year and a half, teachers and students have been making connections between what they are learning and jobs that require these skills. Today the students in 2nd-5th grade began their work as computer engineers by working through some of the activities featured by Code Studio. Students began with simple directional codes directing an angry bird towards the mean pig that stole her eggs.
Using “Blockly” represents units of code as clearly labeled shapes that can be joined together in sequence. As they work, students can “peek under the hood” to see the code that is represented by the shapes. Look below to see first what the students manipulate, and then the code that is “under the hood”.
Here is what Mason, one of the 300 students who participated today, had to say about our hour of code. “I learned that you can code, it’s hard to code, but you can have a good time doing it… it’s a good skill to have.” Mason said the work we did today was a lot like a game he had played before, but he had never worked with commands that repeat or “loop”. He thought that it was “cool” that he could tell the bird to “do this until you get (to) the pig” rather than having to list a dozen individual steps.
He and other students were especially excited to hear how coding makes so many jobs possible. They knew that coding was used to design action sequences in movies, to create animated shows, and to develop and maintain webpages, but were amazed at how pervasive coding has become. They discussed how doctors use programs to select the medicine patients need and to ensure that there will not be a bad interaction or how pit crews run models to plan more efficient routes for race cars.
Whether you have 5 minutes waiting in line or 2 hours on a rainy day, coding is a fun way to keep your brain working. Check out Code Studio for activities that you and your children can enjoy. There are other games as well as opportunities to create art and stories and full courses that teach you the basics of coding. Sign in for free, track your progress, and share what you learn with all of us at HES.
