Health & Fitness
Ranney School STEM Institute for Students Entering Grades 1-9
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also known as “STEM,” come alive as students develop understandings about the world and how it works. At Ranney School, our dynamic summer programs build upon and expand children’s experiential base of knowledge by emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach to learning through curiosity, inquiry, discovery and creative expression.
“Children are natural scientists with an inquisitive nature that lends itself to the active exploration of their environment,” explains Kathleen Deeken, Director of Student Support Services and Summer Study. “Our STEM-focused programming, which is designed for children ages 4-13, provides opportunities for children to explore big ideas and to build skills—such as critical thinking, creative problem solving, collaboration and communication—that will help them in future careers and in life.”
Carol Ann Rofrano, a member of the Middle School Mathematics faculty, taught fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders new approaches for learning math in a Singapore Math course. In this class, students learned basic model drawing skills with an aim toward drawing simple visual models that represent word problems. “The drawings help them see what a word problem is all about,” says Mrs. Rofrano. “The problem becomes much easier to solve once a visual model is developed and logical thinking is used to solve the problem.”
Students also spent time improving their number sense and mental math skills by studying place values and using them to perform computations easily and efficiently. “Students will be able to use these skills when they go back to school in September for any math class they are placed in,” said Mrs. Rofrano.
For those who are not familiar with Singapore Math, the approach is based on a curriculum developed by the country of Singapore for grade levels K–6. Students in Singapore traditionally score at the highest levels on international tests. The curriculum is highly coherent; it spirals and is taught in a logical, step-by-step manner that builds on students’ prior knowledge and skills, explains Mrs. Rofrano. Unlike a typical US curriculum, fewer topics are introduced in a given year, but those topics are taught in greater depth to stress conceptualization and mastery before moving on to new concepts. Instructional strategies build understanding through activities that move a student from concrete (manipulatives) to pictoral (models) and then abstract (symbolic) levels. Problem solving is at the center of the Singapore curriculum.
“All students can benefit from this course,” says Mrs. Rofrano. “The strategies taught are easily differentiated to meet the needs of the child and help them move forward. Students that struggle as well as advanced learners will find that they can easily learn model drawing and mental math skills and apply them to word problems and computation problems at their level.”
Sean Lang, a fourth-grade math teacher, also spent the summer teaching Math Lab courses, with a focus on real world thinking and a classroom full of younger students (first-, second- and third graders). “In this lab, students were given many opportunities to evolve their thinking by making minor adjustments to their original ideas,” explains Mr. Lang. “Using a large cube, for example, they had to estimate how many rubber bands it would take for the cube to make it to the floor without breaking into pieces. Using ramps and marbles, students had to adjust speed, ramp height and direction to hit a given target, and when they did hit the target, they had to move farther away and begin again—but with more understanding.”
Math Lab students also worked to develop a practical understanding of area and perimeter. With Unifix cubes, floor outlines, geo boards and cheese-its, students experimented and recorded their work. They also used our SMARTBoard® technology to play a simple catapult game. “They did not realize it was a physics website that required them to think and make adjustments until they hit their target,” says Mr. Lang.
On the science and engineering side, elementary students participating in Ranney’s summer study programs had the opportunity to learn about solar, wind and water power through a two-week Elementary Engineering course taught by Glynnis Fastiggi. “The course focused on the core concepts of engineering, such as water filters and wind turbines, at the children’s level. They learned how to brainstorm and how to take creative ideas and apply them and rework them until they proved successful,” says Ms. Fastiggi. By working in teams and pairs, just as engineers do, the children also learned to build on each other’s ideas and work together on various projects. They kept daily journals to sketch out their ideas and to formalize concepts in a hands-on way.
The students carried out several unique and fun projects. For instance, to learn about filtering water, the children “contaminated” fresh water with dirt and had to design and test a filter using natural materials (e.g., sand, gravel and cotton). “They took notes on which designs worked and didn’t work and used those observations to make improvements,” says Ms. Fastiggi. In another project, the children paired up to build and test the sturdiness of three types of houses, based on the classic children’s story, “The Three Little Pigs.” They used straws, popsicle sticks and paper to construct houses and blow them down. One of their last projects involved using a pizza box and aluminum foil to build a solar oven to “cook” their own s’mores.
Other Ranney summer study courses in architecture and engineering involved using gumdrops to build 3-D structures that have strong foundations, and using cardboard to build working rollercoasters on which a golf ball can “ride.” Marine science students had the opportunity to put on lab goggles and use professional instruments while dissecting a perch fish.
STEM approaches and courses such as these are offered at Ranney not only during the summer but also during the year as part of the curriculum. Just this past school year, our Science Department forged a STEM committee with faculty from the Science, Math and Technology Departments to develop initiatives that support curriculum development to advance STEM education within the academic departments and throughout Student Life programs. In February 2013, the committee incorporated the Art Department and is now known as STEAM. Many achievements have occurred as a result:
- The Upper School Robotics team, Shorebots, competed at the state level and national level, earning an Excellence Award and placement to compete at the VEX Robotics High School World Championships in April 2013.
- The Lower School received the 2012 Goldenrod Robotics YouthTouch Grant to bring real-world examples of robotics engineering to the classroom.
- The Lower School also formed a new Lego Robotics League for students in grades K–5.
- Competitive Math Olympiad teams were established in each division, encompassing grades 4–12.
- Students in all divisions achieved regional, state and national recognition through the Math League, Math Olympiad and the American Mathematics Competition.
- The Upper School’s Science Research Club hosted its Fourth Annual Science Expo in the Ranney School Parents’ Association (RSPA) Panther Hall in February 2013; a Ranney sophomore placed first in the Delaware Valley Science Fair for her engineering project.
- The Lower School art curriculum was identified for excellence at the national level by Rubicon Atlas for incorporating common core curriculum standards in STEM education at the elementary level and demonstrating exemplar status for horizontal integration across subjects.
- And, our Middle School now ranks ninth in the country, out of 32 schools, and first in the state of New Jersey based on National Science League Testing that took place in spring 2013.
Below is a sampling of STEM courses offered during the summer of 2013, many of which will be available again in summer 2014. Look for our program brochure and register early this coming winter at www.ranneyschool.org/summerprograms.
Grades 1-3
- Flora, Fauna & Insects
- Math Lab: Real World Thinking
- Science Lab: Magic Magnets
- The Living Lab: Interactive Biology
- Elementary Engineering: Solar, Water & Wind
- Science Lab: Plastic Bottle Science
- Discovering Wildlife & Their Habitats
- IPAD Learning Adventures
Grades 4-6
- Robotics: Intro to Lego® Mindstorms® Nxt Programming
- Discovering Archaeology
- Math Lab: Practical Skills for the Real World
- Rockets: Mechanics & Flight
- Decoding Ancient Number Systems: Babylonian, Egyptian, Mayan and Roman
- Engineering Marvels: Bridges
- Singapore Math: Practical Applications for Problem Solving
- Explorations in Marine Science
- Engineering Marvels: Skyscrapers
- Digital Media; Creating with IPADs
- Science Lab: Electrical Currents
- Science Lab: Sports & Physical Fitness
Grades 6-9
- Discoveries in Science: Leonardo da Vinci
- CSI Forensic Science: Detective on the Scene
- Amazing Architecture: A Global Perspective
- Advanced Robotics: Battlebots
- Engineering Marvels: Roller Coasters
- Investigations in Marine Science
- Singapore Math: Advanced Applications for Problem Solving
- Kids Inventing
- TV Newsroom Anchor
