STEAM Makers Cart for TLE

Moderation state
funded
Grant Applicant
Abby Osborn
Grant Co-applicants
Jennifer Cilmi
Laurie Schiebner
School Site
Tahoe Lake Elementary
Grant Category
Art/ Music
Mathematics & Science
Technology
Grant Date
2018-04-30T12:00:00
Description

As a science centered elementary school, Tahoe Lake Elementary would like to augment our science program with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) “Makers Cart”. This movable Makers Cart will include various materials for students to engage in creative design, engineering, construction, and experimentation in the classroom and on their own. The cart will also augment the already popular STEM building supplies used by the 4th grade team to make building materials available for all grade levels.  

Benefits of Program

This cart will benefit all students by providing opportunities to create, build, and test new ideas. The ability to design, engineer, and create aligns with the NGSS science standards across grade levels: https://teachergeek.org/NGSS%20K-12.pdf.  For English Learners, it will provide a rich environment for language development, team building, and academic discourse when discussing their designs, successes, and failures. For GATE and ALS students, the “Makers Cart”  will provide materials for students to participate in engaging, hands-on activities, that will challenge these advanced learners. It will give them the ability to design and create projects while adhering to the NGSS science standards, and then give them the opportunity to share and present them to the class.  

Success of Program

A successful Makers Cart program would include teachers and staff checking out the cart on a regular basis to enhance their science lessons and other team building activities and challenges. As students complete their designs, they would video or present to the class. This will greatly enhance students’ critical and creative thinking while also developing their ability to fail, struggle, then eventually find solutions.

Implementation

After a brief introduction to go over norms at a staff meeting, the cart would be available for sign ups as soon as it is assembled! Teachers are already familiar with the sign out procedure with the tech cart. Teachers can easily find projects and lesson plans aligned with the cart’s contents on https://teachergeek.com/blogs/projects.  

Can you share this grant with your grade level or subject team?

This cart would be available for all grade levels on a sign up basis similar to our current method for our rolling technology cart. Engineering challenges are available for all ages and grade levels on teachergeek.com and Makerspaces.com.

Sustainability
The beauty of this concept is that recycled materials can be used! If funded, our cart may need occasional additional funding for to replace broken building materials we are unable to get donated or funded from other sources. By partnering with SWEP and their Green Team, we will be able to collect additional recycled building supplies constantly!
Amount Funded
$6508.00
Individual Budget Items(s)
$6500 - Makers Cart fully assembled including tools and materials
Budget Notes

Taxes $0  no taxes charged by TeacherGeek.com

 

Shipping is $8.00 if ordered online, $300 if ordered by PO

 

 

If EEF is unable to fund the entire $6500, an alternative would be building our own cart based on this model: http://www.instructables.com/id/Maker-Cart/ However, this is not ideal as it would mean ordering and assembling all parts and materials from scratch including tools and could take substantially longer to implement. The beauty of the Teacher Geek cart is it is ready to go with all required materials.

Shipping
$8.00
Taxes
$0.00
Other funding sources

The McConkey Foundation is a possibility for funding if Excellence in Education is unable to fund it. 

File Uploads
MakerCart.jpg (362.39 KB)
tools_grande.jpg (39.87 KB)
Front_Bins-1_grande.jpg (54.28 KB)
Supporting Links
Teacher Geek website