By providing materials and experiences typically only reserved for older students to 5-8 year olds, we are finding that our youngest students are often our best innovators. A box becomes a rocket ship. A computer becomes a brain. In first grade, students are building battery-operated robots that can hold a marker and draw circles. In second grade, students are programming the robots with blocks of code. By providing these learning experiences at a younger and younger age, we are teaching students the importance of teamwork and critical thinking, and challenging them to constantly ask questions and discover new interests, thus ensuring that we have a future full of problem solvers and collaborators.

 

On any given day in the Learning Lab, students are designing, building, and engineering. Maybe they are building a structure that not even the big, bad wolf can blow over. Maybe they are designing a playhouse for their classmates. They may be digging through recyclables in order to invent the perfect "shoe tying machine" or even creating a tutorial for younger students to teach them the basics of programming with Scratch Jr. Whether they are conducting weather experiements, planting a garden, or testing the strongest designs for solar powered cars, they are working together, asking questions, and solving challenges each day!