STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. STEAM Education is important because it pervades every part of our lives. Science is everywhere in the world around us. Technology is continuously expanding into every aspect of our lives. Engineering is the basic designs of roads and bridges but also tackles the challenges of changing global weather and environmentally-friendly changes to our home. Art is the creativity that can be brought in to STEM and Mathematics is in every occupation, every activity we do in our lives.

STEAM enables pupils to take thoughtful risks, engage in experiential learning, persist in problem-solving, embrace collaboration, and work through the creative process and also describe these learners as the “innovators, educators, leaders, and learners of the 21st century”.

Primary 2 are enhancing their problem-solving skills, they are developing a greater understanding of concepts, applying their knowledge, Instilling creativity and innovation, teaching Teamwork, collaboration, and communication, encouraging risk taking, completing the  process of learning, building perseverance and Determination and most of all fostering a love of learning!

Primary 1 had a special delivery today of some new resources!

First of all, they had a box of giant jenga to use – they decided to build the Eiffel Tower!

Unfortunately, the tower kept falling down when it got too high, so they had to problem solve and find a way of making it more steady.

“I wonder if we could tie some bricks together – that would make them stop falling over”

“I’m going to use these metal hooks to join the bricks together”

After a few tries, the St. David’s Eiffel Tower was complete!

“The blue, green and yellow bricks are heavier than the red ones”

How do you know?

“I just had one in each hand and I could feel the difference”

How could we know for sure?

“We could use scales to weigh them”

The day got even more exciting when the courier came with a delivery…of new wooden blocks! After carefully unpacking them all, everyone was excited to try them out and see what they could build.

“We’re building a house for the dragonfly”

 “I have a crown, I’m the king!”

“I can see through this one, it’s like a tunnel”

“We made a car but it has flat tyres. It even has a steering wheel”

“It’s a two-seater car”

“This tower is bigger than me!”

Is it bigger than Miss Munro?

“No, we only need one more and then it will be bigger than you!”

“We’ll put the pointy one on top because we don’t need any more, and nothing will balance on top of the point”

Problem solving, teamwork, measuring, comparing, imaginative play, story-telling, fine motor skills, shape, designing, editing, weighing, balancing…who says we just play all day?

MarchHomeSharedLearning

Did you catch our P4/5 pupils and class on STV news today?

Following on from celebrating Renfrewshire’s HMIe Inspection progress report last week which was launched in our campus, some of the captured footage was used by STV today to discuss the Scottish curriculum.

As always, our pupils were a credit to our school community. Here are a few screenshots just in case you missed it:

Primary 4/5 had great fun today at woods, exploring, creating and creating descriptions of the forest to use in an upcoming piece of literacy. The children also learned about looking for hazards and being safe, in teams searching for hazards and marking these for their classmates, to ensure everyone’s safety.

The class thoroughly enjoyed making dens that their ‘potential’ characters could have lived in, and exploring what would be their characters home. Climbing, sliding, creating, being safe: all in a day’s work for our explorers.

Primary 1 and Primary 2 worked together to help some lost pirates build some safe dens in the woods. We had lots of ideas for materials. Some made tepees using branches and twigs. some used the tree roots to made cosy caves.

The basic aim of any Co-operative learning task is working together to achieve a common goal. Within Co-operative learning activities pupils seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and to their team members. Within Co-operative learning, small groups of pupils should be used to allow pupils to work together until each member of the team fully understands the learning intention. Knowing that each individual will only succeed if all group members understand, motivates pupils to scaffold one anothers’ learning whilst improving relationships and social skills of all team members.

Primary 3 really enjoyed this lesson and will be working frequently within their Co-op groups. Each group have now created their ‘Team Identity’.

We have “The Purple Guitars”, “The Dancing Macaroni’s” and “The Green Chocolates”.

Take a look at our Primary 3’s in action.

You can see the co-operation, motivation, engagement, face to face interaction, social skills being developed.