4th grade STEM

4th grade students participate in STEM with a program called Project Lead the Way (PLTW).  This module begins with three fictional characters at an amusement park observing bumper cars. Through the example of the bumper cars, students are introduced to energy transfer and conversion in collisions. The students will apply new skills and knowledge to solve a design problem where they are asked to design and build a restraint system to protect a passenger in a vehicle collision. The passenger will be represented by an egg. The vehicle will roll down an inclined plane and collide with a solid object such as a wall.

Students explore how mechanisms change energy by transferring direction, speed, type of movement, and force. Students discover a variety of ways that potential energy can be stored and released as kinetic energy. Students explain the relationship between the speed of an object and the energy of that object. They also predict the transfer of energy as a result of a collision between two objects. As students solve the problem for this module, they will apply their knowledge and skills related to energy transfer in collisions to develop a vehicle restraint system.

 
Students are modifying their vehicle to keep an egg passenger from cracking when they roll it down a ramp. 
 
After reading the book, Dogzilla, students created a way to keep the dog out of Mouseville.  They were only allowed to use a hanger, tape, spoon, rubber band, paper towel roll and a cup.
 
Students working with a VEX IQ kit to build a pendulum to test potential and kinetic energy.
 
Students tested their vehicle to see if it was able to keep their egg passenger safe.
 
Students designed a prototype to carry items up to their tree house.  
 
Students exploring the conversion of energy with a battery, wire and a light