Engineering Lesson

Last Tuesday, on December 2^nd, I taught my last lesson for TCH 276 at Brigham Elementary School. I taught this lesson with three other people from my class and we were teaching an engineering lesson. We worked with a small group of kindergarteners, there were three students in our group. There were four teachers to three students. It was great experience for us to learn and adapt to co-teach with others in our group. I think it would have help if we knew how many students were going to be in our group. Also if we taught this over again I think it would help to lay out exactly who was going to do what and say and when we were going to do each. I think we all became a little apprehensive and did not want to step on each other’s toes.

When the students first came they were a little shy, but quickly became comfortable with us and engaged in our conversations. The standard for our lesson was K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. Our goal for these students was for them to solve the problem of getting over water. They were provided different materials and they had to build a bridge and get their car across the water. We began our lesson with the book. This book allowed the students to see bridges from all over the world. It showed them all the different types of materials that are used to build bridges. We then showed the students different materials and tested out which material would hold the car up and get it across the bridge. I think that it would have been more beneficial to use a heavier car so that the students could see that the thickness and sturdiness of the material matters. The cars we used were extremely light and the materials did not have a big effect on whether the car made it over the water on the material or not. We asked questions and had the students solve through the problem on their own. The students in our group were very fluent English. I was not really able to work towards the English Language Learner part of goal during this class.

Although my goals may not have been met, I was still able to gain something from this entire experience at Brigham Elementary. When I go into a new situation I feel apprehensive to jump right in and don’t always feel comfortable. This experience has taught me to go with flow and to feel okay with that. Every aspect of teaching is not predictable and you have to be ready for anything. This class has taught me that by working with students that you don’t know you develop that skill of thinking and teaching on your feet. This experience at Brigham has contributed to me of always being ready and prepared for situations we are unsure of in the classroom.