For Immediate Release

Thursday, Nov. 1. 10, 2018

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Littleton Students Explore Engineering During STEM Week

LITTLETON — Superintendent Kelly Clenchy is pleased to announce that students in  kindergarten through fifth grade took on their own engineering projects last week as part of Massachusetts STEM Week. 

This year, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Week provided students with an opportunity to answer a challenge to “create something that does something.” In response, students got creative in engineering their own projects by re-purposing recycled materials, and using string, tape and glue to create functional items. 

The projects were completed in five phases, which enabled students to use their critical thinking skills to develop ideas for their projects. The Ask phase allowed students to ask preliminary questions about the challenge. The Imagine phase encouraged students to think about examples of functional items — including who might like to use the things they make.

The Plan phase required students to think about a problem they’d like to solve, and to think about the materials they’d use. Then, students worked together through the Create phase to complete the initial work on their projects and develop a prototype.

Finally, students completed self evaluations and took feedback that enabled them to think about how they could improve their projects, including what could be added or removed from their prototypes to make them more functional, as well as how they could expand their project’s usefulness. 

“Our students were extremely creative throughout the process of developing their projects for STEM Week,” STEM Integration Specialist Heidi MacGregor said. “I was really impressed with the work they did to address the challenge and create something new and practical.” 

Students presented their projects throughout the week, including items like pet toys, paper holders, mouse traps and instruments.

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