Forest Brook Elementary School’s fourth grade students recently participated in a Maritime Explorium STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) workshop called Squeaky Clean Water, which focused on the challenge of engineering a way to effectively filter particles from dirty water.
While the Squeaky Clean Water lesson presented a very simple sounding task – cleaning dirty water – in reality, it offered educational opportunities to construct, experiment, learn about controlling variables, gauge them, compute distance, determine particle size and sequence a series of activities. The workshop encouraged teamwork and creative thinking in order to coordinate efforts to assure that the goal of clean water was achieved. The students also worked as water resource engineers with their attention directed toward describing the nature of solutes, particle size, pore size of the sieves, strainers, fabrics, etc., as they focused on scientific processes and their recording skills.
“A messy, but fun, learning experience was enjoyed by all in the Squeaky Clean Water workshop,” stated Forest Brook Principal Kristen Reingold!
