Episode 240: Student Curiosity Comes Alive with Unique STEAM Program at Daybreak Elementary School

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are challenging young minds and making amazing light bulb moments happen on a regular basis at Daybreak Elementary School.

On this episode of the Supercast, find out how teachers are blending Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math with a mix of the Arts, turning it into a full day of fun and learning that is sparking student curiosity and developing strong thinking skills.

We're here at Daybreak Elementary to talk about their STEAM activity today. Introduce yourselves and tell us what's going on.

Leslie Ewell:
Great. I'm Leslie Ewell. I'm the principal here at Daybreak Elementary and with me is Amanda Williams. She's my instructional coach. We started this last year in the spring. It's a STEAM Explorer. We got the idea from an elementary school in St. George, Diamond Valley. They are a STEAM school and they do these rounds too. So I went down and visited and saw what they were doing and just loved it so much. So then I worked to create it here at our school. And so what happens is every teacher creates a four-week unit with 40-minute lessons on anything in the STEAM acronym, which is science, technology, engineering, art, or math or they can combine all of those things in that unit. They are required to have the engineering process in that unit, so to follow that. And they can choose anything they want. The teachers can choose anything they want to do within those boundaries. And then we create some slide shows. The kids see the slide shows and they pick their top three choices. And then we place our kids in one of their top three choices.

Anthony Godfrey:
So each teacher has designed one and the students get to choose which one they want to be a part of.

Leslie Ewell:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ok, great.

Leslie Ewell:
Yeah, and so we do our best to get them in one of their top three choices. We usually are pretty successful at that.

Amanda Williams:
We've never not gotten them into one of their top three choices.

Anthony Godfrey:
I’d say that’s pretty successful.

Amanda Williams:
I think that’s pretty successful.

Leslie Ewell:
Then they go on Fridays, every Friday from 9:30 to 10:15. They go to one of those classes and they get to participate. There's lots of fun, fun things going on. We have a teacher right now that's doing basketball using Newton's theory of physics. So they spent time talking about that and then they're putting those skills into practice. So you can see that today. We have our wonderful counselor that has been doing dinosaur digging and talking about dinosaurs and that paleontology.

Amanda Williams:
And he even brings in-- He has a lot of family history, which is really cool. A lot of these projects are passion projects from the teachers. So something that they're interested in that they can bring their passion and engagement with the students. So he has family land and has all these fossils and petrified wood, so he brings that in and he lets all of the kids see it. He has dinosaur teeth. It's just really amazing to see not only the students engaged in the lessons and exploring and participating in this hands on learning  but also that the teachers, when you walk in, you'll just see their faces glowing because it's so much fun for them as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
It sounds like a very, very deep, meaningful level of learning. So if anyone wonders whether Fridays are really worth it, Fridays are worth it. A lot's going on here at Daybreak. We have three students here now at Daybreak. So tell me your name and your grade and what you've liked about this.

Jane:
I'm Jane. I'm in fourth grade and I've liked doing our art thing. I'm in Kertamus's class. She's doing pointillism and needle and thread thing. I forgot what it was called. It's really fun and I just love doing it.

Caleb:
My name is Caleb and I am in third grade Miss Adams class. I love the Stop Motion Studio because it's just so fun to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have you made a movie yourself?

Caleb:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey;
What did you use? What was the movie about?

Caleb:
We're like, it's like the old 90s and we're like, there's two kids who are bull riders and two kids that are bulls. I'm a bull and one of my other friends are bulls.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so you're actually acting in this film?

Caleb:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. So you move a little bit.

Caleb:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is it hard to stay still?

Caleb:
If you keep your momentum a notch. It's not if you keep your momentum but if you don't it's just so hard not to fall off.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does the movie have a name?

Caleb:
It's like a bull rider, bull riders that crash into each other and fall and the bulls just start fighting.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. I'm looking forward to seeing this. It's not in 3D is it? I think that might be a little scary.

Caleb:
No, no.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your experience.

Luke:
So my name's Luke and for this class I've been taking a coding class because I want to figure out how to code video games and I've been learning a lot from the teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what have you learned by coding?

Luke:
I learned the basic blocks of what you connect and how to make a character move and how to add a character.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does it make you look at video games differently that you play?

Luke:
Yeah. It makes me look at them way differently.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is that something that you'd like to do?

Luke:
Maybe, but I don't know if I'd be able to make the most complex ones but I'd be able to make some simpler ones.

Anthony Godfrey:
One day maybe. What are the video games that you like to play?

Luke:
I like to play Minecraft and Fortnite.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. All right. We've got pointillism, we've got filmmaking and we've got computer programming coding. I think that's fantastic. Shall we talk with your counselor here and let's see what he's up to?

Isaac Broadbent:
Hello, hello.

Anthony Godfrey:
Introduce yourself and talk about this activity.

Isaac Broadbent:
Yeah, so I am Mr. Isaac Broadbent. I am one of the counselors here at Daybreak Elementary and I am in charge of the Dino Dig STEAM lesson. And so I chose a dinosaur-themed topic to do for my STEAM.

Anthony Godfrey:
You don't wear Jurassic Park gear every day to school.

Isaac Broadbent:
Unfortunately not.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hat and shirt.

Isaac Broadbent:
Yeah, I got my hat and my shirt, the whole outfit.

Anthony Godfrey:
A Jeep outside with a wrap around it.

Isaac Broadbent:
Oh man, you know what? That is actually next on the list.

Anthony Godrey:
That's next level. So talk to me about this activity. What do you have set up?

Isaac Broadbent:
Oh, right. So today is our fourth lesson. Right. So this is the last lesson and this is kind of like the pinnacle part that the students have been working towards. So we've already discussed, you know, the basic anatomy of dinosaurs, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores. And then we've progressed into fossils and different types of fossils and how we can find those in the process that has to take place in order to have an animal remain fossilized. And now we've gone over how sediment plays a role in that process. We've been able to create our own little dinosaur fossils in that sediment encased for the students to dig up today. And so they've been waiting for this moment today.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's exciting.

Isaac Broadbent:
And they can actually, you know, have some hands-on experience with digging and chiseling away at a fossil that they've created themselves.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have a huge drop cloth laid down in the media center. Normally when there's a drop cloth laid down, there's going to be something fun happening.

Isaac Broadbent:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it looks like the fossils are in the red solo cups over here. Is that right?

Isaac Broadbent:
Yep. Yeah. So over here.

Anthony Godfrey:
With some names. So which whose fossil should I dig up for them? I’m just kidding.

Isaac Broadbent:
So I've got Nathan right here if you want.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Sorry, Nathan. I really want to do this. No, this looks great. It actually looks more like a root beer float in there.

Isaac Broadbent:
It does. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What you're saying is that they have fossilized something showing how the sediment can harden and then they're going to cut into that and chip away and preserve that fossil hopefully. So what did they put in as the fossil?

Isaac Broadbent:
So I was able to get some little dinosaur toy skeletons and they were able to kind of pick and choose their favorite dinosaur skeleton and what they wanted to dig up. And then I helped them mix up the sediment. We placed the skeleton inside that sediment, let it harden. And then today I'll be cutting away the cup and we'll have that big block of quote unquote rock for them to chisel away.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is a big day.

Isaac Broadbent:
Yeah. Oh, it's a huge day. They've been asking when we're going to be getting to it for well, ever since we began. So this is the big event.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love it. This is really exciting. And hopefully, we can swing back by while some of those fossils are being revealed.

Isaac Broadbent:
Oh, please do because that is going to be where all the energy and excitement is occurring.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK, fantastic. Thanks for providing such an awesome activity for these students.

Isaac Broadbent:
Of course. It's a blast. I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, students will show us some of their projects at Daybreak Elementary.

Break:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're upstairs now. Tell me about some of the options, Amanda, that we're going to drop in on.

Amanda Williams:
OK, so right here we have our kids that are doing criminal investigation. So when they entered, there was crime scene tape all on the doors the first day and they came in and were told they're now detectives. Their first case was the case of the missing sandwich. But now they've learned about, you know, the missing sandwich.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's important. Absolutely.

Amanda Williams:
But they learned about motive and intentions and how to collect evidence and how to use evidence to support their claims. So now today, they're looking at fingerprinting and how a fingerprint can give them a very clear sense of who is at the scene of the crime.

Anthony Godfrey:
These are their stories.

Amanda Williams:
These are their stories.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I love it. This is awesome.

Amanda Williams:
So this group right here, they're joined by their new chess challenges. So they have different levels of chess, beginning, middle, obviously more advanced and they are doing different tournaments. So you'll see that there will be kids in the pod playing chess. There'll be kids in the classroom playing chess and they're just at different level tournaments. But this has been continuing on, so kids have continued to go back to it so they can further extend their learning and become better chess masters.

Anthony Godfrey:
How's it going here, guys? Who's winning?

Student:
We’re basically like tied.

Anthony Godfrey:
You’re basically tied.

Student:
He has one more point than me.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK.

Amanda Williams:
I heard there was a checkmate. So this one is a very serious battle because there was a checkmate already and now it's going on the second time. So they won't even talk.

Teacher:
Soon they're going to take each other's games. So like five more minutes, they'll switch boards. So he'll have to play his game.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK.

Teacher:
So whoever's losing, they're going to switch boards.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow. So you need to understand each other's game really well. I love that. I've heard many times that losing in chess is how you learn in chess.

Teacher:
Oh, yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
They didn't just tell me that because I was losing?
Tell me your name.

Carson:
I'm Carson Bardsley. This isn’t my real hair.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I didn't think you had gray hair yet. So this is a Daniel Boone kind of Davy Crockett hat with gray hair underneath it. And this is part of part of the video you're making, right? What other costumes do you have?

Carson:
Well, several wigs.

Anthony Godfrey:
Show me.

All right. Caleb, show me what you've got going on here. Can I watch the movie? (movie starts to play)

So you guys are doing the motion yourselves climbing on. This is so cool. Oh, wow. That was great. Oh, now this is animated with a drawing of an ambulance. He's driving along. Who's this? That's Max. OK. Max is a good driver. Oh, wow. He's dragging the patient along the wall. Marla Adams. OK. I can't stop laughing. This is so cool. I love this video. That is awesome.

Caleb:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's just like you described it, Caleb. What did you guys like about making this video?

Student:
Just making people laugh.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Well, you did that today. I thought it was so cool.

Students:
We did this over an extended period of time.

Like last time we just we did that all last time, right?

No, we didn't do it all last time.

We added some sounds this time. We added the clapping sounds.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is it kind of fun working with kids from different grades and different classes?

Students:
Yeah.

Everybody has different ideas. That's just a great way to go together.

There's third graders like–

But they'll get that yellow. Get that yellow on.

That's just a scene of yours.

Anthony Godfrey”
What's that?

Student:
Can you interview ours?

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Student:
Yes!

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, this looks fantastic, guys. You've worked really hard on it and I loved it. This stop motion makes it look like an old time movie.

Student:
Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have a production company.

Students:
Yeah. Stickman Productions.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stickman Productions. Very cool. Well, you guys have done a great job of this. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Amanda Williams:
Dax wants to show you one that he worked on.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Let's see yours.

Student:
My project is stop motion where you have to move it very slightly so it can get -you know how like Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Student:
Those are stop motion and they are actually those take a long, long time.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what was the film that you made?

Student:
So basically it was just we made like a bunch of, you know, people. So we made them fight. It's kind of like a lot of fighting scenes and--

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you use action figures or real people?

Student:
Action figures.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK. And what were some of the action figures that fought each other?

Student:
The action figures. So the one is from Naruto and then there is another one from Naruto. We used a bunch of other different action figures. So Naruto, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Spider-Man and another Naruto.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a combination that copyright wouldn't allow for outside of school. So you made a film that could not be made anywhere else.

Student:
Yep. And it was pretty hard to make because we have to move it very slightly and it just will fall at certain times. And it's really frustrating because we finally get that position we want and we can't really like do anything to make it like, you know. So that is hard.

Anthony Godfrey:
Was it worth the work though?

Student:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sounds like a blast.

Student:
It was really fun. And we could only do it one day for three weeks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, one day a week for three weeks. So you kept looking forward to that day.

Student:
Yeah.

Student:
Well, thank you very much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you. OK, let's check out your pointillism.

Jane:
So here I have a SpongeBob house. I have the pineapple with a little door. I filled in all of the sea, the background, but I haven't filled in the foreground of the sand.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is the pineapple he lives in under the sea.

Jane:
So I have SpongeBob right there. I have two seashells. I have Patrick floating around.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, Patrick. And what are these? Are these bubbles over here? Wow. That looks fantastic. So this is about, oh, three inches, two inches by two inches. Oh, it kind of has a shimmer to it what-

Jane:
Yeah, I've used my glitter pens since I didn't finish it when we were doing this project. I've used my own pens.

Anthony Godfrey:
If you ask me, there isn't a dot out of place. I think it looks fantastic. So are you going to fill in the rest of this with some orange and yellow on the pineapple?

Jane:
Mm hmm.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I love it. It just looks really, really good. How long have you been working on this for three weeks now?

Jane:
Yeah, three or four weeks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you think you'll finish it today?

Jane:
Maybe.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Wow. It looks fantastic. I love it. Well, Jane, where's this going when you finish it?

Jane:
Probably to my house. I'll hang it up in my room.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, you should for sure. Be sure that you take good care of it. That looks really, really good. And Patrick seems happy up there.

Okay. Let's check out the coding you've been doing. Let's just sit at this table and see what you've got. So this is a Pong game that you created?

Luke:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is that what it looks like?

Luke:
Yeah, so you just take the green flag and then you just have to keep the ball going.

Anthony Godfrey;
Okay. That looks great. I love how the game looks three dimensional.

Luke:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know, I played the original Pong on my old TV. I still have it.

Luke:
That's cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
So let's see. But you created this game.

Luke:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you move it back and forth using the mouse pad?

Luke:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then does it increase in difficulty as it goes along or is this just the first stage?

Luke:
This is just the first stage.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I can see on the left all the building blocks. So these are all the components that you put together to design the game.

Luke:
This is all just for the ball. So this is the code that I had to upload on the ball and then on the paddle. And I just do this so that it follows the mouse. And then on the line, if it touches the ball, then everything stops.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you've programmed it so that if the ball touches the line, then it stops and so the game's over. And that's the red line at the bottom of the screen there. That is so cool. I'm so impressed you were able to put that together.

Luke:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Good job.

Luke:
Thanks.

Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to teachers or principals who are listening to this thinking about trying the same thing?

Leslie Ewell:
Well, first I'd say is come see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Leslie Ewell:
Come and see it. And second, I would say it's a process and you have to be pretty clear about your expectations and just make sure that teachers understand why we want kids to be able to have this kind of choice, and and then just start. I mean, that's the biggest thing. It took me a while to actually start because I was so nervous about how it would go.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Leslie Ewell:
And once we started, it's been the energy in school at the energy on these days is so it's just so fun. They talk about it all day long in the lunchroom.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that that's happening. Well, I can't thank you enough for diving in and trying this new thing and really transforming the whole school by doing this activity on Fridays. I saw so much energy and and excitement from the students and from the teachers everywhere I went. So thank you.

Leslie Ewell:
Well, thanks for coming in and seeing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.