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Middle and Elementary School students collaborate on STEM project

Middle and Elementary School students collaborate on STEM project

Students at Prairie View Elementary and Chisholm Trail Middle School had the unique opportunity to collaborate on a STEM robotics project.

Chisholm students in seventh- and eighth-grade robotics classes are learning about gear mechanisms, torque speed relationships and the engineering design process. At the same time, third-grade students at Prairie View are learning about push and pull energy. Teachers at the neighboring schools decided to combine the groups for a shared learning experience.

“Seeing the two groups come together to learn from each other was incredible,” said Sara Weir, STEM teacher at Chisholm. “I’m so glad the incredible teachers at Prairie View could help make it happen!”

First, Chisholm students demonstrated the concepts they learned in class by designing and building a pull toy. When the toys are pulled across a surface, the turning of the wheels causes movement somewhere else on the toy through a series of mechanisms. For example, while one group pulled their toy designed to look like a Ferris wheel, the Ferris wheel spun.

Once the pull toys were completed, the middle-school students visited the third graders on the basketball court at Prairie View to showcase their projects in a parade. The elementary students eagerly watched as each toy wheeled by in the parade. Afterwards, they were able to inspect the toys more closely, ask the middle-school students questions and vote for their favorites.

The votes were tallied, and the winners were announced at the basketball court. Students Karson Ferguson, Auren Cuevas and Gage Gordon placed first with their “Mobile Fair” pull toy. The “Home Run” pull toy, by Landyn Bethany, Kayden Shipman and Jude Jones placed second. Last but not least, Carley Carter-White, Daniel Lopez Miranda and Dakota Nading came in third place with their Pac-Man themed pull toy.

See more pictures on the district’s Flickr page.