Attribute 1.1

Frequency of PBL

Model: Project-based learning is regularly used throughout all subject areas, which includes all STEM content areas as well as additional subjects.

At Hendersonville Elementary, we implement the best research-based learning strategies as defined by the United States Department of Education. We have implemented problem based learning as a strategy in our School Improvement Plan to support our reading and math goals and we have included all STEM content areas. We emphasize the importance of making connections and transferring information between subjects. It was important to us to make the connections to content areas and rigor focusing on the depth of knowledge levels. This has had a tremendous impact on our students, as evidenced by our Reading, Math and Science score improvements.

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Overall, we met state growth targets but in addition our Math scores exceeded our school improvement goal by an additional 5.4 percentage points while Science increased by 5 percentage points and Reading 4.5 percentage points. Hendersonville Elementary exceeded the county’s average test scores for these three core areas as noted in NC School Report. This substantial improvement in all scores relative to our own school, to the scores of our district and indeed to the scores of the state demonstrates the efficacy of our STEM implementation. As you visit the typical classroom you might see students in groups collaborating, using the engineering process, creating a video on an iPad or constructing a tower. It is evident through teachers’ weekly planning notes and newsletters that integration of content areas is a huge component of instruction and Project Based Learning is regularly used. Linked evidence provides detailed lesson plans that demonstrate the rigor of the STEM implementation. It is our goal that this evidently successful implementation of STEM will enable our students to increasingly become 21st Century Learners with skills, imagination and vision in all phases of STEM and to become powerful forces in society. We strive to give our students the foundation they will need to be productive engaged citizens!  

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Hendersonville Elementary holds high standards when it comes to the quality of PBLs taught in the classroom. Teachers meet once a week during their grade level meetings, which have a specific time for STEM discussions, where they discuss their PBL planning. The STEM coach also helps increase rigor by providing feedback and helping teachers create new PBLs in their classrooms.

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Each grade uses the Year at a Glance document

to ensure the use of PBLs across subject areas.

In addition to listing the PBLs implemented in the

classroom, the teachers also align the PBL with

the unit and standards being covered. To the right

you will see an example of 3rd grade's Year at a

Glance document.

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Planting a Seed

Our first STEM unit was done in collaboration with the Hendersonville City Tree Board. School STEM leaders met with the Tree Board to craft a plan for planting trees along the road to our school. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to go beyond just learning about trees to actually planting, caring for and monitoring the growth of their trees.

 

Students at each grade level were assigned a species of tree to plant. Before planting day, students researched their trees, focusing on grade level standards such as plant life cycle and soil composition. During the planting, members of the community assisted the students with digging holes and planting the trees. Information about the trees and how to care for them was also provided by the Tree Board members. Following planting, students continued to monitor their trees and their growth rates. They focused on weather conditions and other factors which affected growth. Students were then able to infer measures for determining growth rates (e.g. leaf count, trunk diameter (geometry), and the onset of dormancy.

 

At the conclusion of the unit, students created products based on the information they had acquired. Products included poems, songs, Power Points, and plays. These products were presented to the students and community members at an assembly. The tangible results of this project are both the STEM concepts learned by the students and the more beautiful entrance to our school.

 

The Mitten

Our second collaborative unit explored the many uses for, facts about, and creation of mittens. Our school partnered with WRESA (Western Region Education Services Alliance), where our teachers attended a STEM workshop in September 2014 and brought this idea back for a school wide project. Teachers researched opportunities to incorporate Reading and Social Studies components, providing a fully integrated “STREAMS” unit.

 

Curricular connections:

●     Science - heat transfer - conduction

●     Technology - Go! Temp probes (on loan from The Science House), digital camera, QR codes and iPads for reading

●     Reading - The Mitten by Jan Brett (both books and online)

●     Engineering - making a mitten

●     Arts - designing a pair of mittens, poems about mittens

●     Math - graphs, ranking (ordinal numbers) of insulators

●     Social Studies - a mitten drive to donate to The Storehouse (a local outreach agency)

 

Students were to make mittens using 2 plastic Ziploc bags and then fill them with different insulators. One student would then take a temperature of his hand wearing the mitten using a Go! Temp probe. After the initial temperature was recorded, that student would then hold his hand inside the “mitten” on an ice pack for 30 seconds. A second temperature would then be recorded to see how well insulated the mitten was. All temperatures were recorded on a class chart so that we could track which insulators were more effective.

 

Students in grades Kindergarten through 2nd grade were paired with reading buddies from grades 3-5 so that they would better understand how to use the equipment that we borrowed from The Science House and correctly track the data from the experiments (Kindergarten with 5th, 1st with 4th, 2nd with 3rd, Exceptional Children with “PawPal” 5th graders).

 

Overall, students were incredibly excited to collaborate with other grades and felt empowered and challenged by the opportunity to work “across hallways.” Students were engaged throughout the experimental process, and clearly demonstrated the ability to take observed data and apply it to a conclusive result. As an entire school, we were also able to extend our learning into service through donating 50 pairs of mittens, scarves, and toboggans to The Storehouse (a local outreach agency and partner).

 

Colorful Cubcats

Our third school wide STEM unit and the first of the 2015-16 school year was titled, “Colorful Cubcats.”  During a week long unit, our students participated in science experiments involving engineering skills, engaging math activities, and exciting types of technology all related to the function, presence, and use of various colors and shapes. For example, 1st graders partitioned shapes into equal halves and fourths. Second and third graders conducted experiments while exploring solids, liquids, and gases. Fifth graders were studying conduction and were working to determine whether the color black or white is a better light absorber, with direct connection to house insulation, and clothing. Within cultural arts, students were making connections to the various elements of music, such as rhythm, meter, and timbre and how the “colors” (timbre) of sound relates to the fundamentals of science (acoustics) and math (meter, note and rest values).    

 

We also wanted each of our students to have a school shirt to wear on school spirit days, to show their pride in the surrounding community, and for them to take away something they had complete choice and freedom to create. We decided to make our own shirts by teaching students how to tie-dye. We also partnered with our local high school’s digital media and graphics classes to have them print the logo on all of our shirts.    

 

 

Fabulous Fairy Tales

For our fourth school wide unit at Hendersonville Elementary, we transformed our school into a castle for the STEM unit, “Fantastic Fairy Tales.” As students returned to school after the Christmas break, they were welcomed by high school students dressed in Medieval castle attire.  The high school students opened the car doors and welcomed students back to school. When students entered the building, the school had been transformed into a castle. The students were instantly hooked and could not wait to see what would happen next!

 

The focus of this unit was to best prepare our students for the 21st Century by embracing the “4 Super Skills in Student Learning:” Creativity, Collaboration, Communication and Critical Thinking. The various challenges the fairy tale characters faced required a well-rounded response, one that certainly must incorporate the “4 Cs.” Our students were presented with challenges that would require them to receive and share ideas (communication), eventually piece it together to form a solution where each individuals’ gifts and talents best shine through (collaboration), consider the possibility of having to form a solution that requires deeper understanding and/or viewing the problem in a different way (critical thinking), and possibly even invent a different method or adjust an existing one to complete the challenge (creativity).    

 

Each grade level chose a fairy tale to focus on and connect with their academic content standards. Kindergarten chose The Three Little Pigs, 1st grade chose The Three Billy Goats Gruff, 2nd grade chose Goldilocks and the Three Bears, 3rd grade chose Little Red Riding Hood, 4th grade chose Jack and the Beanstalk, and 5th grade chose Rumpelstiltskin. School wide activities included 1st graders observing an actual goat and learning facts about its needs and 2nd graders working on measuring and attempting to build a bed that is just the right length and width for Goldilocks. Fifth graders worked on building catapults to send Rumpelstiltskin out of our city because of his “bad behavior” in all of the versions of the story they read. They focused on force and motion and Newton’s 3 laws to develop their catapults. Students in all grade levels were working collaboratively in small groups or with partners, using problem solving skills as they completed their STEM challenges, using critical thinking skills to apply the content knowledge in deeper applications, and showing their creativity during reader’s theater plays, reflective final artistic creations, and throughout the completion of challenges.

 

This unit was one to two weeks long and expounded upon all content areas within the “Fairy Tale” challenges. For example, in 4th Grade science, students were building models to show the effects of a beanstalk moving into the specific ecosystem that they were building. Students were also writing informational pieces about their model. In reading, students read multiple versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and also performed plays of the fairytale complete with costumes and props. Students also created their own individual beanstalk landscape using mixed media and various mediums within the cultural arts classroom.

 

To display our collaborative efforts and the grand results of of our challenges, we held a Fairy Tale STEM night in connection with our Career Exhibition Night. Parents and students were invited to enter the Cubcat Castle to view the progress of our students over the course of the two weeks. From 1st grade’s successful construction of the Billy Goats Gruff Bridge and the life-size beanstalk displayed in the 4th grade hallway, to an interactive spinning wheel exhibition and working catapult within Rumpelstiltskin’s kingdom (5th grade), each classroom exhibited examples of individual and group student work and welcomed parents to take part by operating the spinning wheel, playing a life-size game of chess, and interacting with various stations in the Career Exhibition.

 

One teacher stated, “I am amazed how engaged the students are and the dialogue that is being created amongst them. They are really working well through these challenges, and it inspires me to see how I can add challenges and projects to more of my lessons.”  A 2nd grade student exclaimed, “Please keep our school like this forever (in regards to the school being transformed into a castle). This was the most fun!”

 

The engagement by the students in the whole process of STEM spilled over into the family setting as evidenced by the attendance at the Fairy Tale evening. There were over 350 people in attendance, including families and community members. This is a valuable indicator of the effectiveness of the STEM program as it shows that the learning by the students is carrying over into the more potent learning environment called “the home.” By contrast, prior to engaging in STEM, a school night for the families was typically attended by fewer than 20% of the families.

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