TEAM 7A INCORPORATES STEAM PROJECTS INTO TEAM BUILDING EXERCISES
TEAM 7A INCORPORATES STEAM PROJECTS INTO TEAM BUILDING EXERCISES
A
staff goal at Independence Middle School is to foster a love of community service within their students .
The staff understands the importance of nurturing wellrounded students , and helping them to realize that the value of giving back to others is an essential part of their success .
The teachers on Team 7A couldn ’ t wait to begin this process , so during the first week of school , they got their students thinking about what kind of a year-long service learning project they would like to participate in .
This year the students will focus on underprivileged pre-school aged children and doing what they can to help them to develop a love of reading . Throughout the year they will conduct what they term an “ amped-up book drive ,” that includes not only collecting children ’ s books , but also recording some of their favorite stories on CDs and giving them to an organization that works directly with these children .
The students spent a morning working collaboratively in small groups to brainstorm some slogans for their campaign . They decided on “ Turn A Page To Endless Possibilities ” and had fun designing t-shirts on their Chromebooks to illustrate their slogan .
Later that day , they continued to put their team-building skills to the test by working on two STEAM ( Science , Technology , Engineering , Art and Math ) -themed activities .
For the first activity , students worked in small self-selected groups and were given a bag of balloons and a roll of tape , and asked to see how high they could build a free-standing tower of balloons .
When the time was up , the students brought their colorful towers into the cafeteria and they learned that the tower built by Sean Burns , Anthony Celletti , Thomas Halligan , Jacob Narr and Aiden Sexton was the tallest , standing at seven feet , three inches high .
For the second activity , the students worked in groups preselected by their teachers . They were given 20 pieces of dried spaghetti , one yard of tape , one yard of string and one marshmallow , and they were asked to build a free-standing tower as high as they could .
This activity posed a greater challenge for the students than the balloon tower , with the team of Taylor Arnoni , Max Blanc , Keiton Pegher and Olivia Underwood constructing the tallest tower at 25 inches .
At the end of the activities , the students talked as a group about how things went when they worked with the people they selected versus the people they were assigned to work with . Some of the students were surprised to learn that they actually worked better with people they did not choose , for a couple of reasons . First , they tended not to goof off as much with the assigned group , and second , they were able to listen to new ideas from people they might not normally interact with .
Math Teacher Elisa Scheuerle was impressed with the way the students worked together . She explained that throughout the entire school year , the students on 7A would be working together as a team — learning together and helping one another .
“ What the students experienced today was a brief snapshot of the way we would like them to collaborate throughout the entire school year ,” Mrs . Scheuerle said . “ You could see there were a couple of ‘ ahha moments ’ when the students realized that there is value working with others who might not be in their immediate circle of friends . “ As teachers , we are excited about this group of students and the enthusiasm they showed for these two simple projects . It is our hope that they will carry that enthusiasm for inquiry and learning throughout the school year .”
ethel Park
BETHEL PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT
Colan Saffer works to blow up more balloons to add to his team ’ s tower .
These girls did a great job working together to build a balloon tower .
Winning the Balloon Tower Challenge were ( left to right ): Sean Burns , Jacob Narr , Anthony Celletti , Aiden Sexton ( behind the balloons ) and Thomas Halligan .
Olivia Underwood holds her breath when she checks to see if her tower will stand .
The students worked collaboratively to share ideas and come up with a winning solution .
Winning the Marshmallow Challenge were ( left to right ): Olivia Underwood , Max Blanc , Taylor Arnoni and Keiton Pegher .
Bethel Park | Winter 2016 | icmags . com 61