Discovery Imagineers: Imagine the Impossible

1. Discovery Imagineers: Imagine the Impossible An elementary gifted engineering project for Long Beach School District Deborah L. Holt LBSD Gifted Coordinator 2013-2014

2. Why Engineering So Early? • The demand for STEM professional in the U.S. outpaces supply • Too few university students are graduating in STEM fields • High school students do not have the math proficiency or interest • More STEM grads are needed as teachers to inspire and educate students

3. TIMSS Study from 2007 Percentage of 8th graders achieving advanced math benchmarks.

4. NAGC 2007 Achievement Trap Report • Our attention has gone to low performing students from low income brackets. • Report sites evidence that intellectual talent often generates attitudes ranging from ‘ambivalence to outright hostility’, going on to highlight the significant scope that exists to improve the identification and development of STEM talent. (Jacke Kent Cooke Foundation).

5. STEM Helps Close the Achievement Gap • The achievement gap between low-income students and students of color as compared with white students in the higher tiers of learning is large. • Some of these students will forever be locked out of good future jobs due to a focus on only bringing the low performing students up. (Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Achievement for Low-Income Students and Students of Color).

6. The U.S. Needs STEM to Remain Competitive • “Quality STEM education is important for the nation as a whole and for individual citizens. A robust and capable STEM workforce is crucial to • United States competiveness. (CoSTEM, 2012). • The efficacy of direct, hands-on instruction with meaningful real-world applications has long been recognized as a crucial step in improving STEM education.

7. Underperforming Students Need STEM • Disengaged, underperforming students may need to be challenged more than successful students in order to form an academic identity. • “Science and math content that is presented in ways that engage students in active, often cooperative work with interesting material is essential” (Carnegie Corporation, Opportunity Equation, 2009)

8. Discovery Imagineers: • Discovery Imagineers provides the meaningful STEM engagement for all learners with an emphasis on engineering and technology. -Project Developed by Deborah Holt LBSD Gifted Coordinator 2013

9. Step 1: Laying the Foundation Students will begin their training by actively engaging in age/grade appropriate learning pods in which they will use various materials to design bridges, submersibles, a way to clean an oil spill, and other projects in which they have the opportunity to develop their understanding of the engineering design process of defining a problem, generating ideas, selecting a solution, testing the solution(s), making, evaluating, and presenting. Students will create Discovery Imagineer Engineering Journals to documents their activities and the process.

10. Step 2: Experiencing the Engineering Design Process and Creating Solutions Grades 4-6 Discovery Imagineers will then participate in a project which involves students creating their own solution to a problem. Students will develop abilities to apply the design process to innovation, and experimentation, while designing a solution to a problem. Students will determine the problem they want to solve and an engineer from the local community will mentor them. Students will be exposed to a whole array of various types of engineers from which they may also explore career options. They will then have these choices from which to utilize as a springboard for their product.

11. On-Line Engineering and Invention Projects Students will participate in on-line engineering projects: • Grades 2-3 (On-Line Collaborative Projects-Not Competitions) ~Whichever Way the Wind Blows ~I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff ~Ant Day Care Center ~How Does Your Garden Grow?

12. Upper Elementary Gifted On-Line Engineering Competitions • The Kids’ Science Challenge where students submit ideas and experiments for scientists and engineers to solve (Grade 4) • A Bridge Building competition for grade 5 • Future City Competition where grade 6 students will design and create a futuristic city on the computer.

13. Students Will Participate in On-Line Invention Challenges: • Grade 4: E-Pals • Grade 5: Exploravision • Grade 6: Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge

14. Engineering Research and Products Additionally, students will research various engineering feats in which something amazing was invented, or an engineering feat went awry, and then they will use this research to create an on-line book or a digital movie, complete with details comparing it to other inventions which will help develop students’ understanding of engineering and technology and how it has impacted history.

15. Step 3: Creating a Product and Presenting to an Authentic Audience • Students will participate in a Discovery Imagineer Engineering Fair in which they will collectively come ready to portray various types of engineers to demonstrate to students that there are many types of engineers. • Students will become mentors to a group of students at the Fair by actively engaging them in engineering activities and explaining the Engineering Design Process.

16. “What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.” ~Chuck Grassley