STEM Bins Engage 4th Graders
Mrs. Bain's 4th-grade class has been enjoying some hands-on learning with STEM Bins.
STEM Bins are plastic school boxes filled with an engineering manipulative of the student's choice, such as Legos, pattern blocks, base ten blocks, unifix cubes, toothpicks and playdough, or popsicle sticks with velcro on the ends. The boxes also contain small sets of task cards on metal rings that picture a variety of basic engineering structures.
When students’ regular classwork is complete, they can take one STEM Bin at a time, either to their seat or a more quiet carpet area so as not to distract other students who are working, and get a quiet moment to engineer. They use the materials in the box to construct as many different structures on the cards as they can. And instead of being just “busy,” students are engaged in creative, complex tasks and are encouraged to think like inventors. Kinesthetic learners, spatial learners, and logical learners love exploring the different possibilities for the building materials as they try to construct more challenging structures.
Way think outside the box, Mrs. Bain and 4th graders!
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