Project Extra brings STEM lessons to fourth-grade classrooms

Project Extra in the Classroom, a new initiative to bring hands-on instruction in STEM to all fourth graders, has debuted and, judging by the excitement of students, the program is a hit. STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, education introduces students to fields that are deeply intertwined in the real world. It is an interdisciplinary and applied approach that is coupled with hands-on, problem-based learning.

One of the activities that perfectly illustrates important STEM concepts is building rollercoaster models. Project Extra teacher Donna Migdol works with classroom teachers to introduce topics in physics including the laws of motion, the definitions of mass, kinetic and potential energy and the different types of forces.

The students also learn how to work as a team to form hypotheses and conduct experiments to investigate their ideas. After class discussions, the children visit the computer lab where they use a rollercoaster simulator to explore the relationships between mass and energy that are created by manipulating variables in the coaster’s height, angle of descent and number and height of loops.

Once they’ve had a chance to experience the many things that can go wrong with their models, they’re ready to build for real. The real life models are made of foam and use marbles instead of cars. After building their coaster prototypes, the students measure so that they can replicate them for the final activity—a competition for which team can build the safest, most fun coaster.