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Instructors see this as having multiple
benefits: the students are excited and
engaged, therefore, behavior often
improves. The ELC educators arrive with
the projects ready-to-go. Without wasting
a moment with set up, the students board
the bus, and learning begins!
Inside the STEAM Machine, program
coordinator, Sheila Rainey, has created
a vibrant mobile classroom. There are
five stations ready for the day’s lesson
with activities connecting each of the
program’s five academic areas.
The themes change to give varied
experiences. During the water-themed
sessions, the stations looked like this:
The Science area stages the Sink or Float
exploration. The Technology area features
five iPads where an appropriately-themed
app is queued up and ready for little
fingers. The Engineering section presents
the children with a set of PVC pipes and
joints to configure a tube to pass a marble
through and discover the best engineered
design for the task.
For the Art project, students use
markers to color coffee filters, then take
eyedroppers to transfer water to the inked
filters and marvel as the colors bleed and