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Bill Nye Makes Science Fun. In my lesson I tried to make it as engaging as possible, showing them videos about rockets and astronaut read-alouds from space (highly recommend)

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Students used their imagination showed creativity in this lesson and thus remains true that science exploration can foster engagement.

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Students were having trouble building the rockets and here I am using scientific academic language that is appropriate for their grade level to explain the reason that their launcher might not be launching.

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The students were read Mae Among the Stars which is a true story about the first black female astronaut. The lesson can relate to a lot of my students who have big dreams, and can accomplish them if they really try! This extends the lesson into their real life.

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High Fives for Successful Rocket Launch! I was assessing the student's understanding while walking around the room and helping them with their builds. This student worked very hard and had many trials.

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To ignite students curiosity, I provided students with a simple question "What do we use to move from place to place in the ocean, through lakes or rivers?" Students brainstormed and I observed as they looked at one another sharing what they thought. I also included a scenario that would engage their imagination. I gave them the scenario where if we were to take trip as a class to Lake Cachuma what would we need in order to get there. Of course a bus but what else would we need? After this I had the read aloud "Boats Float" ready for them as they listened I placed their STEM journals in front of them and once the story was complete, student had the opportunity to draw what a boat looked like. I must add, allowing students to draw their own boat was great to see, and they were enjoying putting their ideas in place.

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Students explored Buoyancy and Density, to assist their understanding I had examples that I provided on YouTube. The video "Kids Want To Know" consisted of comparisons between items that had a type of mass and others that did not. I also noted many of the comparisons were related to things students saw everyday. For example rubber duckies, feathers and even a rock. This lead the discussion of what can be done to keep a boat successfully floating. We explored how to construct their own boat though students were encouraged first to brainstorm ideas, work as a team to create a blue print of the boat they had in mind and once complete begin their engineering of a boat. Though not just any boat, a boat that could float and hold at least 10 pennies.

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After students worked as a team, students were encouraged next to test their creation. We took turns, testing them out in bins full of water. Some help up and some sunk or went to the side this helped my students by self reflecting on what they could do better, the STEM journal I had provided had a spot for them to revisit their boat and fill in what they believe didn't work and what may work the second time they try it.

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We followed this activity the next day with the opportunity to have a whole class discussion of what could they change to make the boat better for when its tested again. They gathered again, this time some had switched who would build, who would count the pennies and who would gather the data. Again they worked as a team, I provided them with additional time and the same materials: Aluminum foil, tape and scissors. The class had the opportunity to test their boats once again, This time we noticed many had the same look. Compared to last trials we had different shapes and even a pen taped in one of them. This time around the boats created by my engineers were shared as a rectangle and flat with sides folded upwards. This time around we had a boat that held up a total of 149! They did amazing and the best part about watching them test their boats were how supportive they were of one another's!

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I used the students' STEM journal to assess. Students who had completed the STEM journal showed me they had completed the Engineering Design Process since the STEM journal was just that, the Engineering Design Process.

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Before beginning, I explained the project to the students and engaged them by making it a friendly competition. Students were divided up into teams and asked to communicate and share responsibilities for building a tower out of marshmallows and toothpicks. I asked them to keep in mind that there might be a lot of trial and error involved, and to uplift and encourage each other.

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We looked at pictures and videos of other marshmallow towers being built and took note of the designs. I asked students to think about the base of the design specifically and how that could impact the rest of the tower.

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I also asked that students elect a note taker to document what is and is not working about the designs they are building.  They started to experiment with different base designs, such as a square, triangle, or hexagon. They explained their reasoning for each shape by saying that it was a balancing act between making the most stable base and leaving the most materials left over to build vertically.

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To extend the lesson to their real lives, we talked about other applications students can use structural engineering for. Several students want to work in construction and they had an answer immediately. Other students related the lesson back to their current environment by explaining that they can use this lesson to build in Minecraft or Roblox.

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During the building process, I circulated the room to make sure all students were participating and understood the assignment. I asked groups to explain their reasoning. After time was up, I went around and measured each tower to find the tallest. Next, after the winners got their prize, we reconvened as a group to talk about what did and din’t work. Not surprisingly, the answer seemed to be teamwork and sharing responsibility worked the best.