Kinder-gineers!

School:: Maude Saunders Elementary
Subject:: STEM Education
Teacher:: Lisa Kusevich
Students Impacted:: 105
Grade:: K
Date:: October 10, 2023

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

CHELCO - Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative - $829.83

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 95

As a result of the Lego Duplo sets that I was able to purchase with my grant, my students have become skilled at following directions to reach a goal of successfully completing the building of a structure. The first builds started with me curating the pieces they would need to have a successful build. As my students became more familiar with the process and the pieces, they were eventually able to pull the pieces needed for a build with a minimum of assistance from me. Additionally, they learned how to work together cooperatively to solve a problem. Students who were more adept at building became peer teachers to their classmates who needed assistance. It was heartwarming to see the students working together to solve problems in a positive manner. From pre-test to post-test on how skilled students were at a successful build, they increased their abilities to do so more than 50%!

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

My goal is to engage kindergarten students in the construction of simple structures using Lego Duplo building sets that will lay the foundation for an interest in engineering and expose them to working together to solve real world problems.

What will be done with my students

As an ongoing project, my kindergarten students will start exploring how to build with the Duplo blocks. Once they are confident in their ability to manipulate the blocks, I'll introduce building simple structures, like a tower, bridge or simple machine. These structures/machines are meant to be repeatedly built and re-built until the goal is achieved. Then, we can add to the building challenge by adding a height/weight/functional requirement that their structure must meet. There will also be additional opportunities for the students to explore building structures using their own imagination, with or without a stated outcome. The activities will be conducted during the students' weekly STEAM enrichment time. As the STEAM teacher, I will be leading the project. This is a unique opportunity for the students because there is little time during the regular school day to participate in such activities.

Benefits to my students

This project will benefit my students in many ways: fine motor skills, following directions, working cooperatively with others, problem solving, and perseverance. In addition, it will ignite their curiosity about the process of engineering. It will also help our school's Lego League by preparing students to learn how to build using their imagination and meet a stated goal. Kindergarteners from this year and beyond will benefit from this type of project because the supplies are reusable from year to year. It will assist other teachers schoolwide because students are learning to work together and to keep trying until they reach a stated goal. To measure the success of my students, I will give them a building pre-test and post -test to see how much knowledge about the building process they have gained., using a simple 3-point scale: 0 points - nothing built; 1 point - building attempted; 2 points building complete; 3 points - building complete and meets all goal requirements. There are currently a total of 105 students that will benefit from this grant. At least 500 students in the future will benefit from this grant, using 100 students per year, with a minimum of 5 years of use from the items purchased.

Budget Narrative

The items I wish to purchase with this grant are:
Duplo Deluxe Brick Box $49.99
Duplo Tech Machines $239.95
Duplo STEAM Park 209.95
Lego Duplo Education My XL World 284.95
Duplo Creative Building Time $44.99
For a total cost of $829.83
These Lego Duplo items will enable me to engage students at each step in the ongoing project.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Duplo Deluxe Brick Box	$49.99
2	Duplo Tech Machines	$239.95
3	Duplo STEAM Park	$209.95
4	Lego Duplo Education My XL World	$284.95
5	Duplo Creative Building Time	$44.99
	Total:	$829.83

Please share this page to help in fulfilling this grant.