Building Curriculum and Language: Physics and Engineering

Beginning Physics and Engineering Concepts in a Primary Grade Class

I've always used hands-on projects to build on students' strengths and engage their interests. I've found that building projects, in particular, allow me the opportunity to introduce the worlds of physics and engineering to students, as well as to work in an area that most students find exciting and energizing. While working to meet grade level standards in science, mathematics and language arts, I've found that I can build on students' natural verbal strengths, accelerate their vocabulary development, and begin to make connections between these strengths and areas in which students are more challenged and less confident.

Some Context

Self Esteem				(mm:ss)
Ellen's students talk about what it means to be an "intelligent child".
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Several years ago I discovered building materials called K-NEX. They can be used to build many things, from balances to vehicles to spinners to bridges. Seeing the children's interest in these materials, I set out to teach beginning physics/engineering concepts and related language.

I was teaching a second-third grade class, and this was my second year with this group of students, more than half of whom were African American. I was consciously looking at ways to build on the physics/engineering work in which we were engaged to heighten students' overall achievement.

It's important to say that I have very little background in physics and engineering concepts myself. I've been finding my way slowly, reading children's books on the topic and watching what the children do with the materials. David Macauley's video series, Building Big, in which he discusses such things as the construction of bridges and domes, has been a wonderful resource. It has certainly helped that I am interested in this subject and want to expand my own knowledge. More than anything else, when I am feeling overwhelmed by all that I need to teach, it has helped me to push my own interests, to look for an idea that stimulates me, one that causes me to want to learn more. I find that then, even in the middle of inevitable fatigue, this interest brings me energy, and that energy spurs on my students' interests and energies.

Introducing the Assignment				(mm:ss)
Ellen reviews the assignment and checks to make sure that all students understand the task.
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On Involving Parents in This Work

One way in which I worked toward using our beginning physics/engineering work to heighten students' overall achievement was to consider ways in which I could involve parents. I knew from talking with parents that, for the most part, while they were pleased by their child's excitement and energy, they seemed to think of it more as play than science, language and mathematics. I decided that I would create a video record of each student's work to share with parents, believing that video clips would provide evidence that their child was engaged in more than just play (unfortunately, because that work predates this website, I am not able to share those videos online.) If parents could see examples of their child's work, of their child's thinking, in this area then it might shift the way in which this work was talked about at home. I shared portions of the video clips at parent/student conferences, then parents took the videotapes home to watch, returning them to school for the next round of clips to be added ( we did two sets of conferences and tape-viewings, one in November and one at the end of the school year).

Indeed, sharing these video clips with student's families made an enormous difference in how parents perceived the physics and engineering work in which their children were engaged. Parents began using the language "engineering work" with their children, rather than the language they had generally used previously, "playing with K-NEX." Many families purchased K-NEX materials at Christmas or for birthdays, and children began bringing their work back and forth between home and school. I believe this parental support heightened children's belief in themselves and the work they were accomplishing.

Analysis of the Videos

In the video clips, I used questions both to understand what children are thinking and to guide their thinking in some way. My questions and comments were often about using and/or introducing language associated with the work in which the children are engaged. Over time, this language was picked up and used by the children. The use of the words "modify" and "modification" were good examples of this. All of the children knew these two words when these clips were made in November/December. I've found that, through putting language to a concept with which a child is working, then using that language repeatedly as the work continues, the child will attach the language to the concept and begin using it him or herself. The language itself then helps provide the meaning of the concept. Once Kami had the word "modify" in her repertoire, for example, she fairly easily transferred the use of that word, and its meaning, to thinking about adverbs modifying verbs in English grammar.

I have some questions that I always ask. The children knew to expect these questions and, over time, I began to notice that they had already thought about how they would respond. At first, when I would ask the question "What purpose does that serve?" almost everyone shrugged and didn't have anything to say. I kept asking it, though, and over the course of several moths I began to notice less shrugging and more ready answers. During Engineering Group, a time in which we met in a circle as a whole class and shared our work with one another, I also asked similar questions to those that I asked in the individual interviews; in this way, students began to hear responses from each other to questions such as, "What is the purpose or function of...?"