Lower Schoolers Explore STEM+ in the Innovation Lab

The Keim Center Innovation Lab has been thriving, providing project-based learning experiences for students from all three divisions.

Lower School classes are taking advantage of the space and equipment by working on a variety of design lessons. 

Kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade classes are reading “The Most Magnificent Thing,” “The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do” and “LARF” then, using elements of the stories, are designing their own models of objects and characters. Third-grade students are designing their own “ultimate” animals using animal adaptations and then sculpting their model. 

In fourth grade, students are completing the Pringle Challenge, where they have to design their own packaging for a single Pringle chip which can then be delivered via drone without sustaining damage to the contents. 

Fifth grade is taking on the challenge of using Google Sketchup to create a CAD floor plan of how the Lower School computer lab could be redesigned into an updated innovation space.

“The design thinking process brings a different type of learning that involves empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, testing and implementing,” Fordham said. “For our Lower School students, the design unit is about asking questions, learning and understanding the needs of others, imagining and brainstorming, creating from ideas and building models, making the model better, and then presenting the final creation.  

“This design unit encourages innovative thinking, creative and meaningful problem solving, new perspectives, new experiences and, most of all, lots of interactions and partnerships.”

The Innovation Lab remains busy and continues to grow. Establishing these early learning experiences for students in Lower School lays the groundwork for embracing STEM+, project-based learning and design thinking throughout their years at Ravenscroft.