Calhoun's 85th Street STEAM lab allows Lower School students from our Montessori and Open Inquiry tracks to explore their curiosity while building important skills related to science, technology, engineering, art and math. From following the steps of the engineering design process to executing coding sequences, students complete tactile projects that challenge them to think in new ways and empower them to be collaborative and creative.

Read more below about recent projects, including creating original video games, building a sustainable city, and programming mini robots.

First Grade: Video Games

Videos games are immersive, interactive and a highly engaging medium of digital storytelling. After an exploration of Scratch Jr, a coding app for young learners, first graders were challenged to create a video game of their own. They began by reading The Amazing World of Video Game Development. Children discussed the roles each member of a game design team plays and how the stages of video development mirrored those of the engineering design process. 

Children then dove head first into creating their own maze games. They started as video game designers, planning the setting and characters of their games, as well as the levels and “story.” The design document they created informed the entire process. Students then became game artists, designing each level of their game and the characters in it. They then shifted to programmers and channeled their knowledge about events (something that happens so the user can control the game) to create buttons in Scratch Jr. that guide their characters. Then, students served as game testers, making sure there weren’t any bugs in their code, before drafting and finalizing the box art for their game. Finally, they hosted a release day celebration, sharing their completed games with their families. 

Second Grade: Sustainable Cities

In STEAM class, second graders explored the concept of sustainability. They began this unit by reading the books This Class Can Save the Planet and Walking in the City with Jane. Together, children listed strategies to live more sustainably and learned that they too could be activists. They then researched some of the most sustainable cities in the world, including Copenhagen and Singapore – finding that these cities had renewable energy sources, lots of green space, science education, and recycling/waste management.

Inspired by these cities and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, students began to build their own city. Following the engineering design process, each learner made a solar house, complete with a real solar panel and paper circuitry. Children then worked in teams, planning and constructing buildings and full city blocks in line with green architecture principles. Finally, they assembled all of their creations into one beautiful, sustainable city.

Third Grade: Sphero Robots

In Tech Lab, third graders did a deep dive into programming and robotics with Sphero Minis, or small robot balls. They began this study with a series of geometry and physics activities related to Sphero coding challenges – ranging from connecting the robot to the iPad to programming the Sphero to draw a square. Once children mastered these concepts, they moved through the engineering design process to construct mini golf courses. Children worked in pairs to select a theme and draw a plan for their mini golf courses. After measuring their course, groups tinkered with their code until the Sphero robot followed the correct path. Children then were trained in hot glue gun safety and utilized this new tool to construct obstacles and decorations for their course. Finally, pairs assembled their final creations and shared them with their families.