Building the Future: Ms. Corton’s Third Grade Engineers

How do you teach engineering to eight-year-olds? Most people think of engineering as an academic subject reserved for college students, but new national education standards recommend that engineering instruction should start as early as the elementary grades.

BT’s Lower School science teacher Ms. Mary Jo Corton was one of 300 teachers in five states selected to participate in the E4 Project (“Exploring the Efficacy of Elementary Engineering”), a large-scale, three-year investigation supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and executed by a team at the National Center for Technological Literacy® at the Museum of Science, Boston. The project systematically compares two elementary engineering curricula, both of which are designed to help teachers meet the Common Core State Standards, as well as the new Next Generation Science Standards. The goal is to learn what aspects of classroom instruction work best to help very young students learn engineering and science.

Right now, Ms. Corton’s class is enthusiastically exploring Civil Engineering. They have constructed card towers, spaghetti and marshmallow structures and tall towers made from straws, pipe cleaners and paper clips designed to hold golf balls and able to withstand the wind from a fan. They will also make a bridge out of Popsicle sticks. “The students understand what technology is, what engineers do, and the importance of constructing strong and stable structures,” says Ms. Corton. “We have examined some of the tallest structures around the world to see what makes them strong and stable.”

Although she anticipated the boys really embracing this unit, she has been delighted to see how many of her female students have really shown both an engineering aptitude and real growth in demonstrating their knowledge as the unit has progressed. “Watching Zipporah C. ‘23 smile when the card tower that she designed and built holds the most weights in the class, and then exuding continued confidence by suggesting design ideas to her group throughout the unit, has been amazing,” says Ms. Corton. In addition, seeing Talia L. ‘23 take what she learned from an unsuccessful design on the marshmallow structure and actually taking the lead to design her group's straw and pipe cleaner structure was equally exciting.” When asked what she learned that had made the difference, Talia replied, “I learned that it is important to take the time to come up with a good plan for what you are going to build.”

What else is this challenging curriculum teaching our third graders? Teamwork. “The students have also had to learn how to work together in a positive way to design and build, which of course will carry over into other cooperative endeavors,” observes Ms. Corton.

“I just wanted to share how valuable implementing this unit has been in so many ways to our BT students,” comments Ms. Corton. “The flexibility and support here has made this success possible. I look forward to seeing their continued growth for the upcoming Ecosystems science unit, followed by the final Environmental Engineering unit.”

Learn more about the E4 project here.