• Engineering

    Staff

    Ms. Laura Santangelo 

    Mr. Hao Dong

    Engineering & Technology

    K-3: once a cycle for a 40 minute period.

     

    Technology/Digital Citizenship:

    Starting with a unit on technology we explore what technology is, how to use it and why it is so important. In this day and age it is so important to help our students understand how we need to stay safe in real life and how we also need to stay safe while using technology. During our digital Citizenship unit we will explore:

    • Media Balance & well being

      • We find balance in our digital lives.

    • Online Privacy

      • We care about everyone's privacy.

    • Digital footprint & Identity

      • We define who we are.

    • Relationships & communication

      • We know the power of words and actions.

    We will also generally talk about how to make respectful and responsible choices while using technology. We follow our High Five rules in school and we should be following them while we are online too! 

     

    Coding:

    I teach Elementary school students to code by targeting the foundations of programming: problem-solving, logic, and critical thinking. Some of the activities we do focus on simple, block-based coding, while others, depending on the grade level, use real text-based languages. A few of the tools even incorporate both to help kids with the transition to more advanced projects. By learning these skills through the context of code, kids build essential 21st-century skills for life that empower them to become creators, not just consumers, of the technology. 

     

    Engineering:

    On the Engineering side of class we will learn skills and concepts, helping to build lifelong critical thinkers and problem solvers. A unique experience my classroom brings is experiencing the value of success after a "failure". We learn that when we try things the first time they may not always turn out exactly how we want them to and that is okay! We can use what we created and learn how to make it better in order to accomplish the task at hand.  The community built in our classroom allows students to come up with ideas and solve problems in a creative and engaging way, honing in on their collaboration, critical thinking, and communication skills.