Design Summits Program

As part of their Innovation & Design curriculum, sixth grade students continue to learn the basics of CAD (computer-aided design) using the TinkerCAD platform. They build on their skills from previous years to construct 3-dimensional structures that can be 3D-printed and displayed in virtual and augmented reality spaces. For their Design Summit they partner with peers to research cities around the world and then design their own by mapping their city, deciding on the placement of important buildings and public spaces, and then drafting models in TinkerCAD.

Fifth grade students complete a large robotics project every year that begins after Winter Break. Students learn to code Arduino microcontrollers (Hummingbird Robotics) that include sensors, motors, and lights. Then, building on these new skills, they plan and build cardboard robots that can sense, think, and act. The robots move and light up in response to sensors being triggered (e.g., by light or movement). The project culminates in the Robot Petting Zoo event, where the community can see and interact with the robots.

Fourth grade is an ideal age to begin to expose students to the use of hand tools and woodworking. For this project, students will work together in groups to build wooden animals that are built using pre-cut shapes joined together by nuts and bolts. To achieve this, students will plan out a design that includes a drawing of their animal that uses the available shapes and the location of holes to be drilled to join the shapes with nuts and bolts. Once their plans are approved, they will receive the pieces they will drill and assemble. Time permitting, an extension of this project can include students creating virtual representations of their animals in Scratch that can be programmed to move or respond to user interaction.

During their school year, second grade students learn about the different states of matter. They investigate how matter can be a solid, liquid, gas, or colloid. Students will share with the community a demonstration of the behavior of substances that fall within the major categories. For example, is toothpaste a solid or liquid? What about shaving cream? Rather than displaying a finished product, this activity will provide students with an opportunity to teach their peers and adults in the community through an interactive display.