SIXTH GRADERS PICK UP 'STEAM' IN SCIENCE, MATH

A visit to middle school classrooms this week showed how Barstow students learning STEAM principles — science, technology, engineering, that arts and math — across different disciplines.
In Ms. Jones’s sixth grade science classes, students finished designing their egg drop containers and put them to the test. The egg drop exercise teaches students valuable lessons about creativity, engineering, critical thinking and problem-solving.
 
During the project, students explore gravity, force and acceleration, by creating a vessel that will allow an egg to fall safely without breaking from various heights. They test the effectiveness of their designs by timing their eggs as they fall from a lift and — perhaps the best part — seeing if the eggs are intact or scrambled when they hit the pavement.
 
Down the hall in sixth grade math classes, students engaged in a hands-on project to build hotels from snap blocks, with the object to constructing a hotel with the greatest value possible. Each roof, window and floor were assigned a value, and student architects calculated their total costs using math formulas and preparing a spreadsheet with the results. 
 
Principles involved in this project include engineering and design thinking, problem solving and financial literacy.
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