“As a teacher, I’d never had access to a 3D printer
before,” Mr. Mailey said. “But since Mr. Diller
presented this opportunity and I had the motors to
pair with the propellers, we ended up introducing
electricity into the curriculum earlier than I had
originally planned. This project allowed that to
happen naturally. So when these students are
learning about it in a more in-depth way later in the
year, they will have a better understanding of why
learning about electrons is relevant and applicable to
real life.” understanding. And when they go into Intro to
Physics next year, even if they are a little intimidated
by the equations, they also think, "I know why we’re
doing it."
Mr. Mailey hopes that he’s teaching his students
to try new and bold things with their projects as a
part of the learning process, rather than be afraid
of failure. “The goal with the engineering unit is
to go through the engineering design process and
channel our inner kindergartener,” he said. “Engineers
build the tallest towers, but kindergarteners build
the second tallest because they’re not afraid to be
wrong. They’re constantly pushing the limits because
they just want to see if it works. And that’s the
mindset I want my students to get into with these
projects. When we prototype something, it’s okay if
it doesn’t work. We get a chance to do it again.” “When I decided I wanted to plan a lesson around
the order of operations,” Mrs. Oliff said, “I was
looking for one that would engage all different kinds
of learners – the kinesthetic learner, the auditory
learner, and the visual learner. Studies show that
when students use their senses during lessons, they
frequently exhibit higher retention rates.”
When asked why he gravitates toward hands-on
projects and experiential learning, Mr. Mailey said,
“One of the worst interactions I have with people is
when they find out I teach science and I see that
shudder. Because they had a physics class that was
all equations, all theoretical, all the time. You can get
lost if that’s the approach that you have to it. What
I love about eighth grade at Steward is that we get
to break that apart while building our conceptual
18
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The Colonnade
Teaching a deeper understanding of concepts by
using engaging projects at Steward doesn’t start in
Middle School. In Lower School teacher Emily Oliff’s
fifth-grade math class this fall, students donned
scrub caps and surgical face masks in order to better
comprehend the order of operations.
When Mrs. Oliff’s students arrived on the day of
the project, they each had a manila envelope on
their desks containing a scrub cap, a face mask, and
gloves. They had two minutes to brief themselves on
their mission for the day before their “Head Surgeon”
(Mrs. Oliff) walked in and told them they had six
patients scattered around the classroom who needed
saving. In order to save them, the students would
need to team up in groups and solve math problems
using the order of operations.
“Some students would do it one way and then others
would do it a totally different way,” Mrs. Oliff said.
“And then sometimes they would come together
and realize they weren’t getting the same answer.
They were then able to talk it out, and the students
who learn better by talking problems through got
the chance to solve it the way that worked best for
them.”
Gaby Marshall, one of Mrs. Oliff’s fifth-grade
students, says she loves learning this way. “Rather
than doing worksheets and working independently,
we work as a team and Mrs. Oliff always makes it
lots of fun.”
For another student in her class, Kamran Mohanty,
it’s about having the opportunity to figure out the
problem without simply having your answer marked
wrong on a piece of paper. “If one person gets the
problem wrong, Mrs. Oliff doesn’t say the answer,”
he said. “She goes to another person, and then
another person. And it feels like we can teach each
other.”
Mrs. Oliff strives to make her classroom a safe space
for all types of learners by giving them room to get
things wrong at first, and learn at different speeds.
“The idea that it’s okay to get it wrong and that our
brains grow by doing that, that’s a big thing for me,”
she said. “When I went through school, being wrong
felt shameful and embarrassing. But the whole point
of projects like this is learning teamwork, talking
through problems, and realizing that it’s okay to
make mistakes and that we learn from mistakes.
Those are really important skills.”
EXPERIENTIAL PROGRAMMING IN
THE BRYAN INNOVATION LAB
Not only do teachers like Mr. Mailey bring their
students to the Bryan Innovation Lab when they’re