STEAM and Literacy at Bethel Elementary School

Listen to this Create Make Learn podcast series created in collaboration with  Ms. Kathy Fechter and students from Bethel Elementary School

Bethel Elementary Students

Design Thinking Podcast

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3 

Bethel Elementary Students

Design Thinking Podcast Episode 3 coming soon.

Show Notes / Blog Post

When you think about STEAM projects in school, it's easy to imagine Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; and in many STEAM projects, you'll find Art in the Mix.  But at Bethel Elementary School, ELA teacher, Ms. Kathy Fechter, and her students used their STEAM projects to practice and grow proficiency in skills from their Language Arts curriculum. 

Ms. Fechter was introduced to the Stanford d.school  Design Thinking Process at Create Make Learn Summer Institute and knew she wanted to teach her students how to use design thinking  to become proficient with creative and practical problem solving one of 5 Transferable Skills from the Vermont Agency of Education).

Ms. Fechter adapted  this Create an Eating Tool Challenge for her 4th and 5th grade students which proved to be an engaging way to introduce students to Design Thinking.    Not only did the process integrate science and engineering standards, it also integrated English Language Arts skills such as writing, speaking and listening.  

The Empathy stage of Design Thinking provided opportunities for students to practice active listening as they interviewed a partner to learn more about their favorite foods and challenges that occur when eating this food.   The students used the information they gathered to Define the problem they wanted to solve based on the user's needs. 

The students began to Ideate by sketching 3-4 possible ideas for an invention that would address the challenge.  

In the next stage of Design Thinking, Bethel students used cardboard, tape, and recyclables to create a Prototype for an invention that would meet the needs of their user.  

During the Test stage the students got feedback from their partner and others and reflected on how to improve their invention.

Finally it was time to Reflect on the process of  learning design thinking  by writing and collaborating on podcast episodes.  

Listen to the first  two episode of their podcast here, and stay tuned for more episodes next week along with more information about how we collaborated to create the podcast. 

Bethel Elementary Students

Design Thinking Podcast

Episode 1

Episode 2

Bethel Elementary Students

Design Thinking Podcast Episode 3 coming soon.

Can you identify the Vermont Transferrable Skills that 

these Bethel Elementary students practiced during their project?

 Clear and Effective Communication Performance Indicators
(More info: Transferable Skills | Vermont Agency of Education).  

• I can demonstrate organized and purposeful communication.
• Use evidence and logic appropriately in communication.
• Integrate information gathered from active speaking and listening.
• Adjust communication based on the audience, context, and purpose.
• Demonstrate effective expressions and receptive communication, including oral, written, multi-media, and performance.
• Use technology to further enhance and disseminate communication. 
• Collaborate effectively and respectfully.

Performance Indicators for Creative and Practical Problem Solving

(More info: Transferable Skills | Vermont Agency of Education).  

  

• Observe and evaluate situations in order to define problems. 
• Frame questions, make predictions, and design data collection and analysis strategies.  
• Identify patterns, trends, and relationships that apply to solutions.  
• Analyze, evaluate, and synthesize evidence, arguments, claims, and beliefs.  
• Generate a variety of solutions, use evidence to build a case for best responses, critically evaluate the effectiveness of responses, and repeat that process to generate alternate solutions.  
• Identify opportunities for innovation and collaboration.  
• Use a range of tools, including technology, to solve problems. 
• Persist in solving challenging problems and learn from failure.