STEAM Journey

STEAM teacher Allison Berry is a Google Certified Trainer who has distinguished her self as a top Google educator in the metro area. She was a speaker for a Google for Education training group consisting of Atlanta Public School faculty. “Google for Education Certified Trainers are passionate and driven education professionals with a desire to help others transform classrooms with technology,” according to Google. Google for Education offers a suite of services, resources, and technology, directly for implementation in class rooms.

Ms. Berry has seen the fruits of this program in her classroom. She is part of an online Google Group with every Google-certified educator in North America and around the globe. “We are always sharing lesson plans that incorporate technology and the four Cs of 21st century learning -- collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity,” Ms. Berry said. “I’ve enjoyed using lessons that are already planned and improved upon in the classroom from other trainers.”

7TH GRADERS - “MaKey-MaKey” Video Game Controllers

Teams of students in Ms. Berry’s 7th grade classes competed against each other in the MaKey-MaKey Controller Project. Students learned about opened and closed circuits by creating working video game controllers with a small invention kit called a MaKey-MaKey.

Visiting judges rated their finished projects on creativity, quality, and comfort of the controller. Betsy Trenado Bautista and Sarah Pineda made up one of the winning teams. After trying a standard rectangular design, Betsy didn’t like how their controller looked. “I drew a random shape on a piece of pink paper, and it looked like a fat peppa pig, so that’s what we called our controller,” Betsy said laughing. “We wanted it to pop!” added Sarah.

Adding red foam handles, the girls considered the comfort of the user as well as the overall style of the controller. They finished it off with gold push pins for buttons and a strip of aluminum foil as a conductor. “We had to try different tools and pick the right one to succeed,” explained Betsy. “I want to be a doctor, and doctors kind of do the same thing with the tools they use.”

Before attending Holy Spirit Prep, neither Betsy nor Sarah had the opportunity to experience STEAM. “We had it at my old school, but I didn’t get to sign up for it,” remembered Betsy. “I’m glad that I get to do it here,” Sarah added. “It makes learning fun.”

6TH GRADERS - Study and Build Pipelines

Sixth grade students studied pipelines and were challenged to create their own using two cups and straws. With only gravity acting upon the pipeline, the students had to figure out how to transport liquid from one cup to the other without leaking. Adding to the challenge, they had to account for environment and animal habitats, avoiding those areas and creating turns in their pipelines.

Our students were lucky to have the opportunity to hear from a real oil pipeliner, 6th grade parent Mr. Sande. He spoke to the class about his knowledge of the oil industry and the engineering involved in building pipelines. Mr. Sande explained how oil travels, and students were able to research pipelines in Atlanta to see if they live or travel close to one (one pipeline runs underneath the southern edge of the Lower School campus).

5TH GRADERS - Land on the Moon

The 5th grade students started out this year learning about the first human landing on the moon. They studied the design of Apollo 11, and students tried to mimic its shock absorbency in their own lunar lander designs. Using a NASA-designed STEAM challenge, students built a structure that can be dropped 20 feet while holding two marshmallows inside an uncovered cup.

Students dropped their structures off the side of the Intermediate Building. An important part of the Engineering Design process includes “improvements” to the design, so students captured videos of their lunar landers falling and impacting the ground and reviewed them together in class. They discussed the flight of the lunar landers and how the drop, drag, and shock absorbency all affected the marshmallows in the cup. They use this knowledge to make improvements to their designs.

4TH GRADERS - Outsmart Earthquakes

In December, our 4th graders were learning about earthquakes when they actually experienced one here in Atlanta. After students came to school buzzing about their earthquake experiences, their timely project in STEAM was to create an earthquake-proof structure. Using only pipe cleaners or straws, the students had to build a structure sturdy enough to withstand the rumble of a shake table.

The project was not only a hands-on learning experience to study earthquakes, but also a challenging geometry task. Students learn how to make cubes by measuring and cutting the pipe cleaners or straws equally. “[Making cubes] is always a rewarding challenge for this age group,” Ms. Berry explained. “My students also love to use the shake tables to see if their structures can really be put to the test of a powerful earthquake.”

PRE-K4—3RD GRADERS - Storybook STEAM

For our younger grades, students learn and experiment through children’s literature brought to life. “I often start classes with a short story that has an interesting character or challenge that the character is facing,” Ms. Berry explained. “I use this story to create the challenge for my students.”

In 1st grade STEAM, students built a boat to hold a pigeon and his friends after reading The Pigeon Needs a Bath. This project experiments with the buoyancy of different materials and how much weight those materials can withstand.

Students in 2nd grade read The Three Billy Goats Gruff and are challenged to build a bridge across a river strong enough to hold the three goat characters from the story. This building task is tough for our 2nd graders, but they work in teams to build bridges using only tissues and popsicle sticks.