Binks Forest Elementary School in Wellington is leading the way for other elementary schools by utilizing Project Lead the Way, which allows students to learn through interactive, self-propelled lesson plans and experiments that teach them how to thrive in the real world through a comprehensive approach focusing on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
“We’re the first elementary school in Palm Beach County to take on Project Lead the Way as an elementary school,” Principal Michella Levy said. “They just developed the curriculum for it last year.”
There are some middle and high schools that have adopted the program, Levy explained, and she wanted to try it out at her school. There are four modules per grade level within the program, but Apple iPads are necessary, and expensive.
To help pay for the costs associated with the project, the school made a successful request to the Jacobs Family Foundation for a $40,000 grant to purchase and utilize the program.
Fifth-graders are already using the program and have created robots, Levy said, while third-grade students are designing computer programs. Fourth-graders created a ramp and apparatus to protect an egg. Once spring break is over, first-graders and second-graders, along with kindergartners, will begin the program until the end of the school year.
“It’s an inquiry-based program. It’s individualized instruction,” Levy said. “The kids work two students to an iPad.”
The school purchased 40 iPads and has spent a few thousand dollars purchasing modules for the more than 1,000 students at the school. Lead teachers Adrienne Bass-Dowling, who teaches fourth-grade science and math, and science research teacher Kim Mercurio spent part of their summer training for the program at Florida Gulf Coast University, bringing back what they learned to teach the other teachers at Binks.
In October, the fourth and fifth grades started the program. Third grade began in January.
The school has implemented the program on two days: during the scheduled science time and during a choose-your-own Friday enrichment block. Students are able to choose from geocaching, Claymation, dancing, cooking and other projects where they plan, implement, perform or learn about something. Many students have chosen Project Lead the Way.
“Kids are excited about learning. Kids can’t wait to go. What I’ve noticed is a ton of girls have signed up to do the STEM,” Levy said. “In our group, it was almost even, half boys, half girls.”
Fifth-graders worked on robotics, while fourth-graders learned about force and motion, and third-graders worked on developing web sites.
“We knew we wanted to offer something more. I sit on my PTA board and was talking to parents,” Levy said.
One parent suggested STEM, and Project Lead the Way came up as a program that could work well for the school.
“We take tons of pictures. We bring parents in. We want to see what’s going on. They tell me that their kids are excited,” Levy said, explaining that parents have provided positive feedback.
On Thursday, March 10, Katie Jacobs Robinson, a board member of the Jacobs Family Foundation, toured the school to learn about the impact of the foundation’s grant and the program.
While a group of about a dozen adults toured the school and took pictures, the students were so immersed in their lessons that they didn’t even realize that the adults were there, Levy said.
Mercurio, lead teacher for the school with Project Lead the Way, teaches kindergarten through fifth grade science lab and is excited about the nationally funded program.
“I’ve been teaching STEM with the school for the past two to three years, as well as running Camp Invention in the summer, which is a STEM camp for the week, as well as our aftercare program that had a STEM club, and I headed that for three years,” Mercurio said.
The best way to understand the program, Mercurio said, is that the project provides systematic lesson plans to teachers, including materials and videos, in an all-inclusive package to help present STEM concepts.
Fifth-graders were tasked with removing simulated hazardous waste from an environmental disaster. They built a robot, tested it, and then had to adapt the robot to remove hazardous waste. At the end of the lesson, the children utilized their robot to actually move a representation of the waste.
“Problem-solving skills are what it teaches,” Mercurio said.
Mercurio has noticed that the students are thinking more independently, figuring out how to complete an assignment on their own. “They keep trying and testing different things. They feel secure in what they’re doing. If they make a mistake, they know it’s not a big deal,” she said. “They all understand it’s part of their learning to make those mistakes.”
With 25 years of classroom experience, Mercurio said she’s thoroughly impressed with Project Lead the Way and its impact on students.
“It hits on several areas of science. Not just, ‘we’re building a robot,’ the end. No, you’re building a robot that’s powered by energy, and friction is involved, and you have to move it forward and back. This isn’t quite doing what you want it to do. What do I have to do to fix that? I’m amazed at what they can do,” Mercurio said.
There are four modules per grade, Bass-Dowling said. Her fourth-grade students were working on a collision project, learning about kinetic and potential energy, forces and motions.
“The kids work through different activities to build their background knowledge that leads them up to a project, and then they have to solve real-world problems through their project based on all the knowledge that they gained over the weeks that they’ve been working on the module,” Bass-Dowling said.
Her 28 enrichment students, who have been working on their project for 10 weeks, were challenged to create a restraint system to protect a passenger. The passenger was an egg, and the students had to design an apparatus to best protect their egg with various materials, using the knowledge they had gained about acceleration, forces and energy.
The school is planning on bringing the 10-week modules to the remainder of the students at the school as the program is expanded.
“There’s definitely a different energy in the classroom,” Bass-Dowling said. “They’re highly engaged. You have to be ready for the noise, the commotion, the energy, the excitement. All of that is there, but they’re totally on task. They’re immersed in it. There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the room while they’re doing it.”
ABOVE: Area Superintendent Matt Shoemaker, Katie Jacobs Robinson and Principal Michella Levy watch students Kacey Wills, Sofia Sierra and Angel Mercado-Laguna work on their project. Photo by Tim Stepien
