Each Thursday on the EiE Blog we offer tips for teachers of elementary engineering.

To answer today's question, let's take a look at Lesson 3 of the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) unit Catching the Wind: Designing Windmills. This lesson engages students in designing sails with different shapes from a variety of materials. Once their sail is constructed, kids attach it to a little raft mounted on a track, turn on an electric fan to generate “wind,” and measure how far their raft sails down the track. Often, teachers like to set up more than one sail track, so that testing can proceed faster . . . but then students ask if they can race. Should you let a sailboat race be part of the activity?

See it in action: Watch this lesson!

One of the very first organizations to become part of Engineering is Elementary’s national network of professional development (PD) providers was the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). Since then, SMM educators have developed an innovative (and highly effective) approach to EiE PD. It’s called an “immersion residency.”

A typical teacher workshop takes you out of your classroom, to attend a training someplace else. With immersion residencies, SMM sends an experienced EiE educator right to your classroom, to teach an EiE curriculum unit over the course of several days while you observe and then co-teach. There’s also time for you to discuss and ask questions. SMM evaluators say this up-close-and-personal approach is getting great results!

We asked elementary teachers who were already using the Engineering is Elementary curriculum, “What other resources would help you teach your best?” You said you’d like links to additional online resources about the science topics connected to each engineering unit.

Students get really engaged when they’re learning science and engineering . . . and once they get excited about how maglev trains work, or how to protect the environment by cleaning up an oil spill, they naturally want to learn more. But you don’t have time to research the most interesting, age-appropriate short videos and interactives. So our team has done that work for you.

Which EiE teacher are you?

• You need to make a presentation. You just learned about EiE, and you want to encourage your school to adopt the curriculum
• You need funding. You’re already using EiE, but other teachers at your school are interested. The budget is tight! How can you acquire more curriculum units and materials kits? 
• You need to get the word out with a press release. Maybe you’re rolling out EiE in a big way! Or you’re having a STEM event where students will display their engineering projects. 

For all of these scenarios, we’ve got resources to help. We hope you’ll share this toolkit with colleagues who may want to bring EiE to their schools.

The phenomenon called free-range parenting is making news these days. It’s a hands-off approach—the opposite of so-called helicopter parenting. Free-range parents let their kids take reasonable risks and figure things out for themselves; for example, walking to school unescorted, riding public transportation ditto, or (after some safety instruction) building things using sharp tools.

Come to think of it, free range is how most parents parented for most of the 20^th century . . . but in our modern times, this approach can be controversial. For a variety of reasons, many parents (and teachers) prefer tighter control at home (and in the classroom). But in the elementary engineering classroom, free-range teaching is a highly effective strategy.